Remembering the student visit

The Palestine link up trip to the UK which I had the pleasure of attending was extremely useful and thought provoking for me. I feel that by spending some days in the lake district it gave the Palestinians a good chance to acclimatize. The relaxed environment contributed to becoming friends very quickly, by the first night we were all having a good time joking getting to know each other.

The organisation of events made sure we all bonded with each other, by splitting us into groups of mixed English and Palestinians and giving us team building exercises such as cooking together it made sure, no matter how shy we felt, we all communicated with each other and formed friendships quickly. It was interesting to me gaining a better understanding of their culture. I think it is important to understand other people culture not just for the benefit of creating lasting links but also for self growth, by seeing how other people do things it makes you question how and why you act in ways you take for granted.

Hearing the problems the Palestinians face was important and inspired me to do more humanitarian work. I already know a lot about the human rights violations inflicted on Palestinians daily, but by listening to a person you know recall accounts of their injustice in a close and personal manner, the message is made more emotive. I feel this is beneficial to me as it gives me a sense of duty, putting my small problems in perspective. It is also beneficial to the Palestinians because I will work harder to fight for their rights in the UK, which is extremely important as the UK contributes on a geo political basis to their suffering, and as a British citizen it is important we put pressure on the domestic forces contributing to Palestinian injustice.

Overall CADFA did a great job in connecting us all together. I am extremely thankful for those that organised it for the fun time I had and inspiring education I received. I feel this connection we have with the Palestinians is a virtuous tool in improving peoples lives in both countries.

 

 

Worcester girls news

 

 

 

'Enormous suitcases and the heavy CADFA bag were loaded into three cars with the visitors and taken to Robin Sykes’ ‘student’ house, next door to his  own abode. It took a while for everybody to sort out which room/bed to occupy and what to leave behind and take with them, as there would be no return to the house until after 10pm. Some had had a 5am start after a late night and bed only 2-3 hours earlier, so needed to change /wash/ shower? The washing machines were called into use as well. The view from high above along the river Severn was splendid in the welcome sunshine.

 Then it was a ten minute drive across Worcester to the Horizon Community Centre, where Sohail, another stalwart member of WPF, welcomed them. A local City Councillor was there too in the room he had organised and all tucked into the lunch he had prepared' 

Small paragraph from Lorna and Colin

Worcester Participants

 

 Now, you can see here a new in the Worcester News Website about the visit from the Palestinian girls there and an other new about tourism in Palestine:

  http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/11870933.Women_from_West_Bank_welcomed_in_Worcester/

 http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/archive/2015/03/19/11867121.Let_Palestine_surprise_and_delight_you_in_equal_measure/

Hackney-Beit Sourik twinning evening

Saturday 21st was an important evening for Hackney-Beit Sourik twinning links – we hope it helps revive the link. Shorouq from  from Beit Sourik spoke about the human rights violations in Palestine and how they affect her village. She called for a strengthening of the relation with Hackney that started some years ago and (with the help of CADFA) has brought about ten people (women, children, one man)  to the UK and to schools, colleges and community organisations in Hackney. The support of councillors and Baroness Merel Ece was very encouraging.

The organisers did so well - there was wonderful decoration all round, home made food and cup cakes and a raffle to try and raise money for the visit.

Many thanks to all who came ... and if you live or work in Hackney, please do get in touch.

Finish women visit

 Hi Cadfa Friends!

The women visit just finish. Yesterday afternoon the group of the girls from Palestine left London. They enjoyed so much the city.

During the days in London, they were to different places and in different groups. They made workshops about 'singing' and they talked in some places as a community centers about the situation in Palestine, Human Rights, International Law and their life under Israeli occupation. The British assistants during the different events were so shock about how the difficult is the life in Palestine for the people and they went back home thinking about how the necessary is the freedom for Palestine.

We are sure that the girls made a lot of friends in Britain, they go back home with a lot of good feels about England and hopefully some day we will see you again. Now, I put some pictures about the London time.

Emilio Sanchez.

EVS Volunteer 

From the Northampton-al Bireh twinning group

We want to thank the wonderful women of the Green and Blue groups for visiting us here in Northampton - and we also thank CADFA for making your visit possible. It was a joy to have you with us. Thank you for everything you told us about your lives, and specially for your wonderful presentations last night. You reached lots of local people, including local women's groups and the members of our Northampton Al-Bireh (Palestine) Friendship Association. Your two radio interviews were heard by thousands. Your stories made us feel sad and angry, but we also had fun with you and we hope you will have good memories of Northampton. It was good to walk with you through our market, to see you sitting in the Mayor's chair at the Guildhall, eating fish and chips in the high street cafe, chatting with the Pearls of Peace Muslim ladies, and later teaching our members to dance some dabkeh! Our thoughts are with you and we hope you will enjoy the rest of your trip.

Great feedback from Llanidloes!

So nice to hear this from Mary in Llanidloes...

 

 

I have just written a report for the Town Council including references to the central role played by CADFA in organising the visit. I will also write something similar for the local press.

It was so lovely to have the group here. They were wonderful guests and so enthusiastic and helpful.

The event we organised went really well. We had some live music, including Welsh traditional music and singing as well as Palestinian singing and some excellent food. The women told their heart-rending stories with a wonderful openness and simplicity.

 

The most painful revelation was that they had not realised till they came to the UK that their lives were so desperately restricted and under constant threat, because they had nothing to compare it with.

People at the event (which included a good crowd and quite a few young women) were very much affected by the women's stories.I gather from Karin that there are lots of people in the town talking about it.

Yesterday, we took them on the "town walk" to show them some of the more interesting and historical buildings and then took them to a local cafe for lunch. Some other young people joined us.

Altogether it was a really heartwarming visit.

From wales to North Hampton.. what a journey

We had quite a lovely time in wales despite all the difficulties that we faced in our stay  at the scout house we really enjoyed the company of each other , British volunteers and the lovely people of wales.
wales people are one of the most friendly people you can ever meet, and we were really pleased to find out how much interest they hold towards our case as Palestinians ...
we held an event at the scout house at the last day of our stay in wales .... and it went really good ... and people were really interested  to get to know about our daily live with the occupation ..
All the girl did the presentations about the effect of the occupation on their daily life experiences ... from The different Colored ID that we hold to the checkpoints we face on a daily bases our event was successful on every level, and we got people to listen to us and feel for the hard situation we live in.

our next journey was towards llanidloes , and their we had a great time staying with a lovely British family, who were very friendly to us , thy cooked a lovely meal and offered us warm rooms .
we only stayed there for one night and we held another even at the town hole and we shared or experiences with the people of this town .. and thankfully people were really understanding towards every story we shared .

this morning they dropped us to the train station to get a train from their town to north Hampton. we said goodbyes t them and thanked them for their great hospitality they gave to us.
right now we are in different houses with different families  in North Hampton  .... getting ready for another event we are having tomorrow and an interview at the radio to share more stories about our lives and our project with CADFA .
We are really looking forwards to what the rest f the trip holds for us ... and we are hoping for the best
Aya Abassi (Blue team leader )
Hanadi Jbaer
Shahd Shati
Shoroq Badwan & Suaad (our new friend from the UK)