Education Palestine Project #8509

Education and Fun for Palestinian Refugee Children

by Karama Organisation for Women and Children's Development

Project Report | Mar 13, 2012
March Update from Karama Organization

By Yasser Alhaj | Director

Dear GlobalGiving Supporters!

The new season started; the sun is getting out more often and the cold starts to disappear from our community center and the houses in the camp. The perfect time for more outdoor games our international volunteers think at Karama Organization, and the children seem to think it’s the perfect time to satisfied their appetite for ice-creams.. Since the warmth officially returned, ice-creams seem to be sold everywhere for a few cents, making it the children’s favorite after school snack. But besides all these things going on in our organization, we would love to take the time to write you another update about the developments in our project!

Since the weather enables us to initiate more activities outside, it confirms again how important is it for the children to play safely. Not only is it a great way for them to be active and get some exercise in this way, it also helps them to release energy and emotions. Some children will be too distracted to sit down during the program in Karama, and those benefit greatly from playing some outside games first. Being too bothered by problems at home or other distractions to focus on a workshop, after they used their bodies they are often much more able to participate fully in any other activity. All the children gain a lot from the activities our international volunteer create outside; since they often contain a component of collaboration, team play and determination. Although most kids will find it hard work together in a team for example, it is encouraging to let them experience that being a team player is actually a great good!

But although the emphasize of Karama is on creating a safe place for the children, both in an emotional and pedagogical way, as well as in a practical way, we notice that our outside playground is not always living up to our ideal of safety. The concrete floor is not whole anymore, and contains area’s where the children could easily hurt themselves. Even though we have been spared for accidents until now, we still want to make it our aim to update this area, hopefully with new rubber matting. A project proposal is going out to our contacts right now, which will hopefully receive responses in the near future. If you want to contribute to this restoration plan for our outside facilities, you are more than welcome to contribute on this website, or sent us an email if you have any suggestions.

With our lessons and workshops, we keep on supporting the education from the children that they already receive in the UN schools in Deheishe Refugee Camp. The group sizes that are being used in Karama are much smaller than their classes in the UN school. In the first place this already makes them feel more noticed, and encourages them even more to participate in the classes. But it also helps the tutor to notice the process of the children much quicker, and give more attention to the area’s where they have difficulties in. Although the lessons in Karama will have no official assessment, they will most surely help to children to perform better in class and pass their exams in school with more confidence.

We would like to thank you again for keeping connected with our project and showing your interest and support! We encourage you to keep on spreading the word about Karama Organization with your friends, family and contacts so we can continue with our work.

If you would like stay in closer contact, please fill in your email address at our website to receive our monthly newsletter!

Warm wishes from the Karama Team.

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Dec 12, 2011
Karama Organization - December update

By Yasser Alhaj | Director

Library

Dear friends and supporters through the Global Giving,

It has been two months now since our last report, so we are eager to update you on the developments in Karama Organization. Still, we look back at an hectic but amazing Global Challenge, with great results! We were able to reach out to many people, to get in contact with new sponsors and receive a rewarding amount of donations. And even after the Global Challenge we feel we benefit greatly from our account at Global Giving, since we continue to receive support.

In the last months, the work of Karama continued steadfast through the help of international volunteers and the determination of our local staff and teachers. Since the schools started after the summer holidays and winter settled in, the openings hours are slightly reduced, to meet the children’s school schedule and to avoid keeping them in too long after the dark sets in. A group of young children run in daily after their school classes, which last from 7 o clock in the morning till 13 o clock. Our programs give them the opportunity to be creative and get their energy out, while receiving personal attention from our volunteers. This often results in new artistic wall decorations, and the wallboard full of colorful drawings. Also, the English lessons with several age-groups continue in small setting, in order to give the children the maximum of attention. This will support their lessons in the UN schools, where the children who struggle with the material often fall behind quickly.

One of the most recent projects that Karama successfully conducted was the transformation of the only Deheishe Camp Library! With the help of two dedicated international volunteers, we were able to extend our range of books, and set up a more systematic administration system. Above this, we added some soft cushions to create a comfortable reading corner. After the hard work, this resulted immediately in more kids using the facility! The queues have never been this long with children waiting to take out books, and children that never took books home before now have the chance to read in the library, as well as at home. We continue to look for options to extend our book range, and we work hard to keep the library an attractive reading and relaxing place.

Meanwhile, we continue to work with the primary schools in Deheishe Camp. Besides the activities in our center, which also support the educational system, we work to sustain the efforts of the schools as well. Since we identified the problems children experience due to too little attention in class and distraction due to emotional distress, we continue to make efforts to establish activities that will meet their needs. This have to happen in close coordination with the management of the schools, in order to identify the group of children that will benefit the most of our program, and to plan the activities according to their schedule. With the success of the previous remedial program, implemented in 2010, in our minds, we are hopeful our current efforts will bring the most vulnerable children more academic success.

With this update we want to let our Global Giving supporters know what we did not forget them, and we continue to be thankful for your support! If you wish for more regular updates, why not add your email address to our mailing list at www.karama.org.

We thank you all for your interest in the work of Karama Organization and your continuing support!

Warm greeting from the Karama Organization.

Activities inside

Kids in the Library

Links:

The Karama Website

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Oct 10, 2011
Remedial Education Classes in preparation

By Yasser Al Haj | Director

Thanks to all our friends and supporters, the funds
collected during the Global Open Challenge will enable us to run our remedial
education classes, which support students who are having difficulties at
school. Preparations have begun on this important project which will start just
as soon as the funds are received.

Currently, the older children at Karama are enjoying daily
English classes and music lessons with our international volunteers. The rest
of their time is spent working on a blog about Palestine and releasing their
energy through the various sports activities that local volunteers organise for
them. The younger children are learning and having fun in the creative and
imaginative play activities organised by the international volunteers. They too
enjoy practising their musical skills in the singing session which takes place
at the end of each day.

The remedial lessons being prepared will target male and female UNRWA

school students who are identified by their test scores as being those

with the greatest risk of academic failure. We will provide them with

supplementary lessons, that aim to address the combined interaction

between education and psychosocial health, given the poor educational

environment and the trauma experienced by the children due to their life

under occupation. In particular, we aim to improve the test scores of the

participating students in the subjects of Arabic, English, Mathematics and

Science. Furthermore, we aim to address directly any observed psychosocial

issues and to improve the interaction among teachers and students through the program's small class sizes.

Currently, we are in contact with the UNRWA school staff to coordinate the practical aspects of the courses. Aside from these preparations however, we still have to wait for the funds to arrive!

Again a huge thank you to all our donors, supporters and friends! Without your help and support, we would not have the resources to carry out this remedial education project!

KARAMA ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN

Deheishe Refugee Camp

Bethlehem - Palestine.

Tel: +972 - 2 - 275 13 13

e-mail: alhaj@karama.org

Director: Yasser Al-Haj

Tel: +972 - 599 - 033 021

office: =972-2-2751313

Links:

Read our latest newsletter!

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