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1.
Children’s Summer Camps:
are aimmed at children aged 13-15 and
include various activities: cultural, entertainment,
art and craft workshops and trips (with participants
charged only a symbolic fee for the Summer Camp
program).
2.
Children’s Exchanges:
every summer the center sends some of
the Shu’fat Camp’s children to Italy and France for
summer camps projects; exchanges with European
children; and the experience of a short period of
travel overseas. Such opportunities offer children
the chance to expereience other cultures, make new
friends, and more importantly, a chance to step
outside the region’s conflict, and the hardships of
life in the refugee camp. In addition to this, the
Center is also currently pursuing the idea of a
winter-time exchange project.
3. French
Fraternity Project:
was signed in February 2003, with the French Loving
Society from Limiee (France). This project entails
occasional visits and exchanges between the youth
enrolled on the project; a number of shared sports
activities, cultural exchange program, and more
generally, a program offering medical assistance to
the Palestinian people.
4. Developing
Young Female Community Leaders:(Ford
Foundation-Cairo)
This program aims to mobilize young women towards the
following:
-
Reinforcement of
women’s equal participation and their roles in
developing the local society, fighting
social stigmas (such as drugs, school drop out
rates, early marriage, etc.).
-
Promote voluntary
work as a way to build and develop a democratic
society, in all areas: social, economical,
cultural and political.
-
Cooperate with
local and international organizations to train
women and girls in obtaining skills for
self-leadership and social work, acting to
reinforce the importance of community
development in all areas.
5. Development of
Pioneer Women Leaders:
aims retain and strengthen the
cultural aspects of society. Aimed primarily at
youth (aged between 13-18 years of age), and
realised through various extra-curricula activities
such as the Spring Festival and Oukaz Cultural
Festival. The Palestinian Ministry of Youth and
Sports supervises the project.
6. Progetto
Sviluppo CGIL - Social
promotion of youth, and combating drug addiction in
East Jerusalem: Progetto Sviluppo CGIL,
in cooperation with another Italian NGO, ARCS, has
drafted a specific proposal outlining a series of
activities of limited duration (music, sports, arts,
computers, etc.), and aimed at combating drug
addiction among the Palestinian youth in East
Jerusalem. In parallel to this, the project seeks to
promote social welfare and fostering hope for a
better future for these troubled young people. The
center has contracted Firas Abu Shama, a social
worker, in order to conduct preliminary research
into "Drug Addiction in Shu'fat Refugee Camp",
backed by the Italian Government and a number of
Italian NGOs.
7. Promoting women
in rural and refugees areas to decision-making and
public life:
is a new project funded by USAID
(American Cooperation). Through this project, the
center aims to increase public awareness of the role
of women in public life, and the roles women can
lead in the decision making of local and regional
government bodies and institutions. The awareness
campaign will be measured by the levels of adoption
of women's rights platforms by local candidates (and
females candidates elected in the recent Palestinian
Parliamentary, and local council elections), and
measured against the degree of media coverage of
women's issues, follow up programming at schools or
with youth, and/or holding of a local rally on
women's rights. A series of workshops will
contribute in steering, and increasing, the
capabilities of the rural women campaigners in
advocating for their human rights, as well as
helping them communicate their beliefs effectively
to other women and men (and among society, at
large). Long-term successes will be measured through
the continued positive activities of female NGOs and
the emergence and support for new civil society
leaders, who share in our efforts to achieve a
better level of women’s rights in Palestinian
society.
8. Progetti Centri
Rousseau
The Rousseau to Shu'fat Project 2002-2004
Centri Rousseau
is a social cooperative, created in 1968, with the
aim to develop social and educational projects for
children and youth. The mission of the cooperative
is aimed at developing educational projects for
children and youth, focusing on group dynamics,
communication, social abilities, and relationships.
The Centri Rousseau project began in 2002, and ended
in December 2004, acting to foster a
network/partnership between Shu’fat RC’s three
principal associations: the Woman’s Center, the
Disability Center and the camp’s Popular Committee.
The aim of the project was to promote
professional services for youth and children in the
camp, who are otherwise marginalized as a result of
the prolonged political, and violent conflict in the
region. The project was developed via the networking
of the camp’s mains groups and associations, as well
as the creation of a team of social workers that
received two-months of training, in Italy, on social
and educational skills and working with minors.
After the team’s training the educational services
for minors began, along with the promotion of
activities as theatrical activities, summer camps,
artistic and creativity workshops, street education,
sport and various cultural activities.
9. The Children
and Youth of Shu’fat: New Communitarian and
Professional Resources, with Micro Economic Support
2005-2006
(in progress)
In the second phase of Centri
Rousseau project (as outlined in the above section),
it was decided that the network between the
institutions of Shu'fat RC and the Shu’fat United
Committee, formed in the project’s earlier stages,
be strengthened. Positive previous experiences made
it possible to further develop the active
partnership between Centri Rousseau and the Shu'fat
United Committee. The partnership sought to work
together and address issues such as a methodology
for future work, a methodology for conducting needs
assessments, and planning new activities.
Firstly, a common methodology of work
was established, alongside a common methodology of
needs assessment, which aimed to help the community
to identify and prioritize needs, as well as finding
alternative solutions to the socio-economic
problems, and generally harsh living conditions,
which continue to face the camp’s inhabitants. Such
tasks were addressed by considering the differing
points of view: environmental, social and economical
problems.
The
main objective of the project
was implemented through several activities
structured in three main areas: educational area,
income generation area and networking area. The
project aims to benefit everyone residing in the
camp.
The project’s staff is composed of a
Palestinian team, cooperating with an Italian
supervisor, and an additional team in Italy working
on the development of an Italian network of
associations to support the project, and the
realization of a general awareness campaign related
to Israeli-Palestinian issues, in Italy.
The objective of the educational area
is to change the situation for the children in the
camp and it was implemented through the
establishment of an educational service for children
and youth in the camp between 6 and 14 years old.
The staff of the previous project helped to create a
new educators team with a local coordinator who
attended to trainings concerning educational tools
during the project and the project itself has been
supported by volunteers from Italy in Palestine. In
collaboration with the Italian team, the Palestinian
staff organised two Italian-Palestinian summer camps
in Italy. The first was in July 2005; the second
will be in July 2006.
The activities of the “income
generation area” aims at establishing a female
cooperative for hand crafted products. The
cooperative was established and strengthened by
defining a list of products to sell. This was
achieved with input from the staff with marketing
experience, and through a training program for all
the cooperative’s staff. Products were
commercialized through the network in Italy, Israel
and Palestine.
The first
phase of project was based on a methodology of work,
which aims at establishing and developing a network
between the associations involved. The objective of
the second phase is to strengthen the “local”
connections in this network and to instruct the
Shu'fat United Committee upon how best to implement
“international connections” with a number of
associations and organizations abroad. Thus, the
“networking area” of the project aims at integrating
the local network into an international one,
possibly structured into three layers, depending on
nature of organizations involved.
The
Italian network is structured in three layers
(department layer, institutional layer and
grass-roots layer) involving Municipalities of
Milan's hinterland, 80 local groups and associations
in regione Lombardia and 3 departments. The
Palestinian network involves Municipalities and
Associations across East Jerusalem, and has been
strengthened while the third layer is being
established that will involve a number of Israeli
peace associations. The entire network was
established and developed through shared activities,
such as designing project sessions, exchanges and
training in social, educative, cultural, health,
micro-economic projects, and through sending
delegations between Italy and Palestine (a
Palestinian delegation received in Italy, and an
Italian institutional delegation called “ Major for
Peace” in Palestine). |
