Bring 24 young ambassadors together for peace

Encompass Trust Youth Summer Camp

August 10th to 13th 2014

Samaritan Peace Centre, Mount Gerizim, Nablus, West Bank

Welcome to the latest update from Encompass – The Daniel Braden Reconciliation Trust. Thanks so much for donating towards our work.

Given the current crisis in Gaza, we thought it would be good to post a report about a recent (and remarkable) project which happened in the Palestinian West Bank.

Samaritans and Palestinians from different parts of the West Bank took part in the event which took place at the Samaritan Peace Centre, Mount Gerizim. The goals of the project were:

• To introduce children from different communities and religions in Palestine to one another and encourage understanding, cooperation and breaking down of stereotypes
• To let children from the West Bank learn about the Samaritan community first hand
• Empower our alumni to create, organise and run a project independently
• Help participants with personal and community identity through activities and games
• Although not an original goal, help participants with trauma healing/relief due to the recent violence and closures in the region
• Encourage team building and national pride

Encompass Palestinian Coordinator Karen AbuZant tells how it went. 

“Planning for this project was very challenging due to the recent outbreak of violence against Palestinian during the past two months. However, the team were determined to make it happen, even if we had to change our strategies and goals a bit. We did not have confirmation of participation of youth from the south of the West Bank until the day before the event, so we invited more youth from the north, thinking that they would not be coming. However, groups from Ramallah, Bethlehem and Jenin were able to join in after the lightening of the siege on checkpoints. We ended up with 40 participants and 12 leaders.

Day 1: Icebreaking and identity

We began with ice breaking activities such as each participants saying their name then doing an action and the rest of the group repeating that name and action. Many more games and activities were used to help the participants get to know one another's names, where they were from, their hobbies/talents, unique qualities and likes.

After lunch, we took a tour of the Samaritan Museum and the Samaritan Village. We were told stories about the Samaritan community and some of the customs that have been observed by them for over 3,600 years.

During the second half of the first day we focused on Identity. We did activities such as an 'I am' poem, 'Two Truths and a Lie' and 'Identity Totems'. It was amazing to see the kids delving into themselves and making realizations that they never considered before.

Day 2: Focus on Community

We started by doing an exercise called 'The Wind Blows', helping the young people to realize how much they have in common. Then we moved on to drama by one child in the group wearing a plain white mask, pretending to be an alien coming to earth for the first time, discovering items in the room, discovering people and trying to make a connection. Then another alien was introduced and the first alien showed how happy he was not to be alone and they went on discovering together.

We also used the masks in a dark blue and light blue. The light blue represented peace.....the dark conflict. The wearer of the mask had to act out the colour mask he/she was wearing. They represented peace by shaking hands, hugging, and helping people in different ways...healing the sick, feeding the hungry and comforting the sad. The conflict was mostly imitating physical violence, but then they started to pretend to gossip or instigate arguments between the audience members. This exercise was to install upon them how their behaviour can positively or negatively affect their community.

The day went on with similar activities and also outdoor team sports. We ended the day with a quiz about the different communities in Palestine, followed by a talent show and dance party.

We said goodbye to most of the Samaritans, as they were going the next morning on a community trip to the Dead Sea plus lots of hugs, handshakes and exchanging of Facebook and email accounts.

Day 3: Focus on new friendships

The children helped prepare breakfast with us, working together to make sure everyone was fed. Then they helped to pack up sleeping bags and cleaned the venue. This showed us that they learned a lot about community and how to give of themselves to make it better.

Afterwards some of the older participants went up to the holy mountain to see ruins and spend some time getting to know each other even better. The younger kids make friendship bracelets and gave them to one another. 

We had a pizza party for lunch, followed by a treat....'knefeh' the famous local sweet in Nablus.

The leaders took this opportunity to have a short meeting to discuss and review the project. We all agree that even though due to our challenges, we weren't able to do everything we planned, our goals were still met, with respect to both the participants and leaders. They said they learned more than they ever imagined they would and were proud of themselves and the participants for working together to overcome the problems thrown our way.

Then everyone pitched-in to pack up the bus. The Nablus group left first, taking a taxi to their homes down the mountain. The big bus dropped off kids and their leaders to taxis going to Ramallah, Bethlehem and Jenin, then continued on to Tulkarem with the rest of the kids and leaders.”

Karen AbuZant, Encompass Palestinian coordinator

If you think this project and the work of Encompass is worth supporting, please do donate to us on Global Giving. Your donations will be greatly appreciated and put to very good use.

Thank you.