The Palestinian participants

Hazem Abu Hilal – Dar Assadaqa project worker (co-ordinator of the EVS project) – YOUTH LINKS. Hazem has a lot of knowledge and experience in working with youth and civil society and is a trainer in different topics. Hazem hopes to learn new skills and new experience in relation to twinning and   youth work  and development in general and see how the youth and NGOs work in the UK and exchange experience between Palestine and Britain

Lama Abu Helal – journalist – WOMEN’S LINKS. Lama is very interested in music and singing and part of several choir and bands. She is new to the twinning activities in Dar Assadaqa and is keen to improve her skills as a leader so she can be more involved in activities  useful to women, young people and also disabled people and old people.

Najah Afaneh – WOMEN’S LINKS. Najah is a member of the Abu Dis local council women’s committee. She is famous in CADFA circles as she has made wonderful Palestinian food for our visitors and volunteers since CADFA began.  She has been involved with Dar Assadaqa for several years and came on a women’s visit to the UK with CADFA in 2007.  She has co-ordinated women’s activities there for the past four years. She hopes to develop her team-work skills and meet new people during this visit.

Noor Hanbali, teacher from Nablus – WOMEN’S LINKS. Noor was an EVS volunteer in the UK with CADFA. She was a leader on the CADFA women’s visit to the UK last year. She also hopes to work to improve the twinning between schools and universities. She is hoping to learn more about leadership, better communication, different culture

Rana Ghabbash – student at Birzeit University. Rana is part of the YOUTH LINKS team: she runs the Dar Assadaqa dabkeh and drama group. She’s keen to come as she can learn more about leadership and she has seen how others have benefited from CADFA visits. She aims to improve her knowledge of what CADFA is doing and how to work with her group. She says "I believe in the  justice of the Palestinian issue ,and i do believe that my country lives under oppression and always looks as undeveloped country so this opportunity will help me in improving the vision to Palestine and also will increase the level of awareness of my country when being a good leader."

Salah Bader – YOUTH LINKS -  Scout leader at Abu Dis Youth Club and a member of  the club management team. (Abu Dis Youth Club has worked with CADFA for a number of years) Salah has experience as a teacher and a manager in Palestinian Civil Affairs ministry. He is sure that being part of this project will broaden his experience in relation to youth work, co-operation with other groups. He hopes to learn more about twinning work, hosting and leading exchange visits and about other cultures.

Sameh Eriqat – STUDENT LINKS. Sameh works at Al Quds University in the Students’ Affairs Department. He is involved in the Palestinian Council of Young Political Leaders, the Palestinian Animal Right League and the Palestinian Foundation for Education for Employment.  Sameh works with Dar Assadaqa on the programme for EVS volunteers. He hopes that this visit will help the Al Quds University to improve its partnership with CADFA, and looks forward to meeting new people, gaining new experience, widening his horizon and opening his mind to new thoughts.

Hosam Oriba – a student at Al Quds University. YOUTH LINKS. Hosam is an enthusiastic volunteer at Dar Assadaqa, working with the young people and also supporting the EVS volunteers. He expects to learn more about CADFA, twinning and to gain new skills.

Abdulkareem Bader is a lecturer in logic at Al Quds University. He has been involved in CADFA since the beginning and he is a member of Dar Assadaqa management. He has led students on previous CADFA exchanges and helps to support the EVS volunteers from Dar Assadaqa in their work at the university. Abdulkareem is very keen on improving the international links of Al Quds University and supporting and developing the work of CADFA. He wants to learn more about leading youth exchanges.

Talal Abu Shawish from Gaza is a Deputy Principle in the UNRWA School in Nuseirat Refugee Camp. He is also a writer. He came in summer 2013 on a CADFA planning visit for one of our children’s projects but by the time the visit itself happened, the group were trapped in Gaza and unable to come. In January 2014, he was the leader of a group of students coming on a CADFA visit – they were also unable to travel. We very much hope to see Talal on this visit if it is possible and we are waiting to welcome him, but we know that the situation at the Rafah crossing is very very difficult at the moment.

Abdul Wahab Sabbah – CADFA co-ordinator in Abu Dis, co-ordinator of Dar Assadaqa and leader of the Palestinian group. Abed is central in Camden Abu Dis twinning work on the Palestinian side and will help to train the group.

Twinning in Action Conference on 20th December

Please tell your friends about this conference!

Saturday 20th December - Twinning in Action Conference!

https://www.facebook.com/events/1642014159358844/

Twinning leaders' visit - outline timetable

Timetable for the training visit   12^th to 21^st December 2014

Thursday 11th Dec	Travelling day
Friday 12th	INDUCTION DAY  ice-breaking - team building  Induction CADFA info
Saturday 13th	PALESTINE / UK:   CONTEXT DAY Activities and presentations by participants   Palestine and human rights Youth work/ twinning presentations
Sunday 14th	TWINNING LINKS DAY UK: Palestine -  Discussion about the different countries Discrimination and human rights Twinning and the links groups
Monday 15th	CADFA EXCHANGES DAY Preparing, leading and following up exchanges Local risk management outing
Tuesday 16th	COMMUNICATIONS DAY Includes a serious look at the blogs
Wednesday 17th	Return to London  Central London tourism
Thursday 18th	LINKS GROUPS PLANNING DAYS  - visits to organisations relevant to own link, a links meeting for each link and  whole group evening workshops  each day
Friday 19th
Saturday 20th	FINAL PROJECT DAY...  Twinning in Action conference Evening celebration
Sunday 21st	PROJECT EVALUATION DAY
Monday 22nd	Travel day / Palestinians return to Palestine.

Another meeting at Dar Assadaqa

These photos( in the beautiful rooms of Dar Assadaqa) include Munir - we're sorry that his health won't let him travel (get completely well soon!) but he will still be part of the project. Of course they don't include Talal from Gaza but we hope that there will be a way that he can join us too.

OK we're getting there..

The first lot of tickets have been bought: From Amman to Newcastle on Thursday 11th December in time to start the project in the Lake District on Friday 12th December... HURRAY!

TERRIBLE visa system

Who can believe how difficult this UK visa system is for Palestinians who has not done it? How many obstacles on the way? It is as complicated as the Israeli checkpoint system... and I (from London) am ashamed of it. Look below at the issues for our LEADERS group and our STUDENTS group. We also want you to know that we are unhappy with this system and we have put in a formal complaint (as well as trying very hard to work with it).

We have also included the visa issue at point 2 of our recent petition which we we are sending to the British government.

Here is the petition.

This is what we said...

(2)    Challenging the racism of the illegal settlement movement: while Israel continues to hold on to Palestinian land and to operate settlements on it, the UK should put Israelis and Palestinians in the same legal bracket.  This would mean a change, for example, to current UKBA rules that make visas unnecessary for Israelis and difficult for Palestinians.

As long as Israelis are settling Palestine and living on its land, the UK should make them subject to the same visa rules.  

With the visas on this project, we have had so many problems and we will write about them properly. Right now

(1) LEADERS' GROUP

The leaders' group had to wait a very long time before they could put in their applications although we tried very hard to get them in as soon as we knew about the project. In the end, their applications could not go in before 5th November. We were told that from this point, it would take 15 working days (three weeks). TWO WEEKS LATER, each of them got a letter, telling them that their passports and applications had been received in Amman, and they would have an answer within 15 working days (which could take the whole thing to 5 weeks after the original wait).

We originally planned for this visit to begin on 15th November. More recently, we have been planning and booking accommodation etc, for it to start on 5th December.

This is now not secure and we need to remake all of our bookings. We are really very sorry to anyone this inconveniences. We will now start the project on 12th December (travel day 11th). SORRY ALL - There is nothing we can do.

(2) STUDENTS' GROUP

The students had visa appointments booked in Ramallah on 19th November. When they got there, six of them who have Jerusalem residency were not allowed to put in their applications in Ramallah. The UK visa system has chosen to echo the divisions made by Israel which have no international recognition. CADFA has put in a formal complaint.

Meanwhile we are also arguing for a refund - and have had to pay again PLUS EXTRA so that they can apply in Jerusalem.

The system is full of inequality.

Second group meeting for the twinning leaders' group in Palestine

 صلاح بدر تجهيز عرض حول العمل التطوعي والشباب في فلسطيني وسيتم نقاش التفتاصيل المتعلقة بالعرض مع المتطوعين الاجانب وحازم الاتفاق على يوم الاثنين القادم.

 رنا غباشة تجهيز عرض حول واقع الشباب في فلسطين وسيتم الاتفاق على موعد للنقاش بين حازم ورنا بحضور المتطوعين

 لمى ابوهلال تجهيز عرض حول الاعلام والمعيقات والتحديات والاتفاق على موعد مع حازم والمتطوعين.

 نور ونجاح عياد تجهيز عرض حول واقع المرأة الفلسطينية وتنسيق مع حازم من اجل العرض 

 أسامه تجهيز عرض حول واقع قطاع التعليم من ناحية حقوقية.

 سامح عريقات تجهيز عرض حول الانشطة الطلابية في فلسطين والتنسيق مع حازم والمتطوعين للنقاش العرض 

 .عبد الكريم بدر عرض حول التعليم العالي في فلسطين وتقديم العرض مع المتطوعين الاجانب 

 التاريخ المقترح للرحلة من 4 الى 15-12 

 الاتفاق على تقديم مقترحات بخصوص الفعاليات المزمع تنفيذها في اليوم الفلسطيني وهو احد ايام التدريب يجب تزويدنا بمقترحات من الجميع من اجل تحضيرها بشكل نهائي

 البدء بالعمل على المدونات الالكترونية الخاصة بالرحلة 

 الاجتماع القادم سيكون يوم 29-11 الساعة 2:00

A beautiful place to do the training - what do you think?

What do you think about this place for our training? This is in the English Lake District, NW England... We'll be there till day 6 and then back to London!

Dear Palestinian friends, do please take the weather seriously - MUCH colder than you are used to, and damp... though it should be warm and nice inside :)

Bring good shoes for walking in the mud :)

Dates for leaders' visit

Dear all - 

We think that it's best to move the leaders' visit back (or is this forward??) by a week, to increase the chances that we have the visas and passports back on time - and to give us another week to get the planning done (the funding was announced so late that this has put real pressure on!). 

The picture is a poster for our children's day 

celebration in Camden on 20th November.

We are therefore working on these dates: travel 4th December, project start on 5th December, project finish 14th December, travel day 15th December. Hope to book the tickets in the next day or two and confirm to everyone.

Hope this suits you all! 

Palestinians - Britain will be COLD then so do bring WARM CLOTHES!

As for the students, dates we hope (including travel days) are 15th to 26th Jan.

We are still working on applications for the women's visit - More on that soon.

All visa application dates booked for the leaders and the students

We've now managed to get all the visa application dates organised for the Palestinian leaders (due to come to Britain at end of November/ beginning of December) and the Palestinian students (due to come on 15th January). That's great!

Picture: a CADFA activity in London today to draw attention to the situation in Jerusalem and Palestine.

Can Talal get out of Gaza?

One of the participants in the leaders' visit is Talal, who was the leader of the Gazan group for the Common Ground project in August 2013... when the group were not able to travel, and also for the Gazan group in the student visit last January 2014... when again the group were not able to travel.

We really hope he can come this time and he has applied for a visa and for time off to come. But look at this...

http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/over-17m-gazans-isolated-world-after-israel-egypt-close-crossings

Palestinian student participants selected

The selection process in Palestine for the university students' visit in January is now complete; places have been offered and the visa process is under way! We are trying to be well in advance to avoid the problems we had getting the leaders' visa applications submitted.

We have offered places to a good group of students who are recommended by Dar Assadaqa, the Human Rights Clinic, the Student Affairs Department (with the Student Council) and the Insan Centre for Gender Studies - They will soon begin their preparation with a meeting at Dar Assadaqa.

(This is a picture one of the students on a previous visit took for the 'Look at our Lives' book ... included here because of the terrible things happening in Jerusalem at the moment).

Next week will see the beginning of the selection process in London.

In the meantime,

Did you know there is a blog for student links here?

http://cadfastudent.blogspot.co.uk/

The blog from the last student exchange we ran is here:

http://maantogether.blogspot.co.uk/

Our student book from our 'Look at Our Lives' exchange is also available...

WELL DONE to all the students who will join us: we look forward to seeing you in London.

Twinning in Action leaders' meeting, Palestine

Yesterday was the first meeting for the people coming to Britain on the youth leaders' visit - this picture is in Dar Assadaqa and I think it is half of the room, and there is another photo on its way of the others. Apparently it was a positive and practical meeting - Here in London we are looking forward to meeting you all very soon.

Next youth links activity in UK...

This blog

We hope to use this blog all the way through the Twinning in Action project to let people know the news and collect comments and pictures on what's happening. 

If you're a participant in Twinning in Action, please make sure you have a password so you can help with this - thanks :)