Promoting Child Literacy in Palestine

We are very excited to announce a new children's library will be opening in the town of Beit Hanoun in the north of the Gaza Strip! MECA is providing funding for the shelves, tables, chairs, and books (both Arabic and English). We will send photos when it opens!

The library is part of a community organization serving children and youth in Beit Hanoun run by the Union of Health Work Committees. They will be using the library during their psychosocial activities for children after this summer's military attacks devastated the area and terrified the residents (see below for link to photos from a human rights organization). They will be offering storytelling, open hours for reading, lending books, and soon creative writing courses too! MECA is helping them to access some award-winning Arabic children's books not available in Gaza.

We are also planning for a creative writing training for our parnters in Gaza that will be led by the Palestine Writing Workshop. We've had the chance to work with PWW in the past on storytelling activities, summer camps, and a creative writing workshop for refugee youth in the West Bank that produced beautiful story boards. This training for 20-25 of the staff at our partner centers in Gaza will guide them in how to help children turn their fear into something creative whether a story or an image or a drama skit. More details and updates coming on this soon! 

MECA is also continuing to support our partner center in Silwan, East Jerusalem to run the only children's library in the area. With so much violence in the streets as new illegal Israeli settlers have taken over homes in the neighborhood, this library is an important oasis for children. It also serves as a tutoring center for children who have fallen behind in school. 

And in the Shejayia area, MECA is providing afterschool teachers to help 45 boys and girls with their English reading and writing through an afterschool program. 

Thank you for your support which is making all of this possible!

Links:

• Ruins in Beit Hanoun, August 2014

Sadly, many of our literacy activities were interupted this summer.

Seven weeks of Israeli attacks from the ground, air and sea devastated the entire Gaza Strip. MECA and our parnters in Gaza had to switch priorities. Instead of offering summer camps, reading buddies, and providing new books for the renovated reading room at Rachel Corrie Children's Center, we were busy distributing food, water, and hygiene kits to displaced families who fled their homes. More than 500,000 people were living in schools or with friends and relatives during the attacks in hopes of finding a safer place for their children.

At least one child who was a member of our partner center in Rafah was killed by Israeli airstrikes, he was one of more than 500 children killed by Israeli attacks on Gaza this summer. 

MECA and all our friends and partners in Gaza are thankful for the start of a long-term ceasefire this week. As soon as we finish assessing the damage to our partners and projects, we will get back to work providing important recreational and educational activities for children. 

Meanwhile, our partner center in Jerusalem also had a tough center. Settler violence was on the rise and they canceled many of their outdoor activities to keep the children inside and safe from violence or kidnappings. The library was full to capacity throughout June, July and August as children came to read stories, play games, learn about creative writing, and compose messages to children in Gaza. 

We hope our next update will reflect on happier times for Palestinian children.