مخيم اللاجئين عايدة

من أكثر الأيام تأثير علي والتي لن تنسى بالنسبة اللي في هذا التبادل هو يوم زيارة مخيم عايدة للاجئين في بيت لحم على اعتبار اني شاب من شمال الضفة الغربية كانت هذة أول زيارة لي للمخيم اطلعنا على حياة الناس في المخيم وكيف تسير الأمور وقد استفدت كثير من هذة التجربة
محمد زيدان

شمس ساطعه وحر شديد

من الأمور التي لا تنسى خلال هذا التبادل هي زيارة موقع القرية البدوية في منطقة الخان الأحمر حيث تتمي هذة المنطقة في شهر تموز بالحر الشديد وتكون درجات الحرارة مرتفعه جدا في منتصف النهار 

محمد صباح 

An hour to shop!

When we went shopping in Ramallah yesterday afternoon with Lamyaa, Sarah, Sarah and Yasmine, we had a really funny time and bought beautiful things.

Hope

I will nver forget the warmth that the Palestinians showed us. Their willingness to give regardless of how little they may have gave me a renewed hope that humanity is still alive.

AR

Prisoners released

I will never forget the celebration when the prisoners were released from their 12 year sentence. The people in Abu Dis showed them so much respect.

Terrible story.

I don't want to forget when Nadine visited us and told us how her cousin had died.

It became very emotional as she described how her cousin was wrongly killed while on his way to work - and had a knife placed by his body by soldiers.

Getting past that Separation Wall

I'll remember the Palestinian desperation to exercise their rights... it's evident in their efforts to scale the Wall: holes, tunnels and climbing ropes have been attempted, despite the harsh, sometimes fatal, consequences.

Ursula

Injustice

The stories from the people, especially B's.  She was speaking about the injustice that Palestinians have to face daily. Although it was in Arabic, you could see her passion and how real the situation is.

The right to education, the fight for education

Education is a holy right.

Here, every family has injured or shaheeds. We still love to learn.  In Gaza, schools were not even closed when rockets fell on them.

So British students should be thankful for their education and treasure it. They should not complain when they have to wake early!

Mohammad Eriqat.

Bedouin school

I greatly enjoyed going to the Bedouin school - it has been the highlight of my trip so far. The staff and children were so happy and optimistic. They wanted to help those who were more vulnerable to not having an education.

The school was made of car tyres and with the support of volunteers.

I remember driving closer to the West Bank and knowing we were in Palestine. We all appeared to experience varied emotions when we saw the wall and ...

A reminder to work, to open our minds and our hearts at all costs

Saara H.

Memories

Marah's birthday...

Hiking in Ramallah...

Sharing pictures.

Everything, I will remember it.

Rula O.

touched by the welcome

Something I don 't want to forget is the moment some Palestinian members shared their experiences and stories of living under occupation. I was very touched by their stories and they will stay with me forever.

I have been touched by their warm welcoming and despite how little some of them may have, they are still so hospitable and selfless.

Sorcha

While having the opportunity to visit the university, we were shown a museum which was dedicated to imprisonment. It has shown all the people that are detained without a trial and in uncertainty about when they will get released.

What was amazing to me was their ability to express themselves and create stunning artwork while being confined to limited resources.

Kamil - Team Black

I will remember

Sharing our pictures....

Our trip to Ramallah....

Alaa H

We really want to remember

From this trip I don't want to forget the Palestinian people and I hope they dont forget me. I hope we remain friends and keep in touch for a long time to come.

In particular, I won't forget the prisoner celebrations, the kindness and positive attitude of the youth.

Lamyaa

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Hey, this is Reem and I dont want to lose connections with the whole group. I found them very kind and serious, I mean by serious that they really want to know about Palestine and us. So, I will remember every single detail.

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I won't forget the love that has been shared between us. I won't forget the laughter that came out of our hearts. I won't forget any of the beloved students

Shurouq

Proud

The one thing I will never forget is the day the two Palestinian men were released from prison after 12 long years/ to experience what we did was just amazing. I cant express enough how lucky to be in my homeland and getting the chance to meet all these Palestinians. I could not be prouder to be a Palestinian myself.

Sarah A

Stories

You don't have to understand the language to understand the people and their stories.

The occupation makes the Palestinians stronger - they defeat the purpose!

Y

First half of the exchange

There are many things I have enjoyed so far, which makes it difficult for me to choose one.

One of the favourite things that I loves was when the Palestinians showed us around the area and took us to their homes.

Political graffiti

because the streets are filled with history. Each piece of political graffiti tells a different story and the fact that they have their shaheeds on the wall symbolises their importance and significance.

Aaliyah

Shining eyes

I will not forget the shining eyes of the UK group when they saw the Dome of the Rock when they came with me. Their eyes were saying something which all words and language will not be enough to say - the thing that I love most is that I feel the we will not be left again.

Mohammed Eriqat.

After a few weeks wait, a day of rushed packing and a 5 hour flight, we found ourselves halted a further 3 hours in Ben Gurion airport. Now, it’s not to say that weren’t exoecting this, Israeli security is renowned for it questioning (what’s your father’s name? what’s your email address?) you know, the absolutely crucial questions needed to be asks in order to allow someone into a country.

However, the end of this what seemed to be a lifetime wait, was absolutely worth it. Our drive from tel aviv to east jereusalem allowed us to see the Al-Aqsa mosque and the infamous west bank wall within the first hours of being in the holy land. Once we reached Abu Dis we were greeted with classic Palestinian hospitality in the form of food (always a winner). We got talking to our friends on the Palestinian side of CADFA who explained to us that we got it easy. The route which most Palestinians take from Jordan often takes 2 days to pass. That, combined with our warm welcome soon made our relatively small problems melt away and we were excited to start our project.

Our team (Team Black) finally got to meet the majority of the group the next morning. Surprisingly we surpassed the usual awkwardness of meeting someone for the first time,  and got straight into learning about each other’s lives. The real task of the morning was outlining the differences between our every day lives and culture. We took an informal tour around Abu Dis Guided by our new Palestinian friends, which ended up with us looking over an stunning valley overseeing the whole of the city. Much to our surprise, our appreciation of our surroundings and what seemed like a personalized tour came back to reward us. Once we got back, we were asked to list all of these differences and given all of the surrounding we took in TEAM BLACK WON!!

Here is our victory picture: we are excited for the rest of this journey and the time we will spend with our new friends. 

We felt Palestine

After a long wait at the airport we were finally on our way to the accommodation. Some of us had fallen asleep on the bus, we were hot. tired and very hungry. Until we saw the bright lights of Jerusalem from the left of the van, we all stood up and took our phones and cameras out and started taking pictures, that's when we saw it. The dome of rock and Al Aqsa.
 That's when we first felt it.
We felt Palestine

Running up to the last minute...

... and running very close to deadline.

The young people's handbook has finally gone to press! It will be printed in Palestine and we are promised it will be ready on time!

The young people travelling from the UK are very excited, full of questions and we hope they have a great time.

Arrangements are being fine-tuned in Palestine ...

and soon the UK group will be out of the rainy July UK summer and in the heat of Palestine, making new Palestinian friends. Good luck everyone!

London meeting about the youth visit

Here are some of the participants and not all (and some of their mums and not all) after our meeting in Camden on Sunday. We all agreed that it's REALLY EXCITING that the youth exchange is just about to happen! Watch this blog to learn how it goes!

Preparing for the youth visit

The Twinning in Action women's exchange is still a recent memory - "I haven't digested it all yet" said one of the participants recently - but CADFA is preparing now for the final youth exchange of the Twinning in Action project: the youth visit to Palestine."It's so exciting," said one of the young people preparing to travel, "I can't believe I'm going!"  But in less than a week - after over a year in preparation - the UK group will be travelling to Palestine.

The Twinning in Action youth visit to the UK is much further back in memory - Here are some pictures to remind us - That was an amazing experience for the people from both countries,  in Norwich, Cambridge and London... and originally the whole of the UK group of participants wanted to join the exchange to Palestine, and this is what they said...

Why do we want to visit Palestine

By CADFA Youth Links

To learn about Palestinian culture

To understand Palestinian life

To learn more about Palestinian restrictions and their treatment
To actually see the things we’ve learned about for example checkpoints and the Wall

To see different things and places

To visit Jerusalem

To see the Dead Sea

To see the people we met again

To learn more Arabic and teach some English

To eat Palestinian food

To come home and be able to tell our own stories and experiences

It took a long time for this exchange to be agreed by the funder, Erasmus +, and not all of the original group of young people will be able to come this time. But old group or new participant, we're all looking forward!

Here are the objectives of thIs exchange...

• To bring young people from Britain to meet and exchange experiences with their counterparts from Palestine

• To increase their awareness of human rights issues and to challenge discrimination

•  To give them an opportunity to make some film together about their lives as young people

• To build on previous work that CADFA has done and strengthen twinning links between schools and youth clubs in Britain and in Palestine