Annual Report 2001
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Table of contents The Socio- Political Situation Environmental and Community Health Projects Promoting Children’s Literature Conferences, Exhibitions, Networking ------------------------ The Palestinian People had to face another year of oppression sufferings and challenges. The Israeli escalation of structural terrorism that included mass and individual deaths, house demolishing, land engraving and trees destruction persisted with a systematic escalation. Closures and sealing of areas accompanied by hundreds of checkpoints, isolated cities, villages and camps created Bantustans and small isles. Daily life for the Palestinians became disrupted, the economy shattered and the social fabric weakened. Though the Israelis failed to intimidate the Palestinian people, they did not consider ending their military occupation of the Palestinian lands; on the contrary, they escalated their State Terrorism and varied their means of slow death and intimidation. Moreover, with the drastic absence of any deterrence or punishment from the International Community; with the hijacking of the United States of the United Nations political system and in particular the Security Council, Israel had a free hand to violate International laws and Conventions, including International Humanitarian Laws. The Palestinian people did not have the military means to face the sophisticated war machinery of Israel and the USA. The PNA limited its choices to the Oslo Peace Agreements, which were not honored by Israel, and did not allow for the means for a popular struggle or mobilization. However, the Palestinian people struggled heroically with their limited means. As the year preceded, most of our centralized activities, central training and workshops diminished or ended. Our ability to travel to the different areas, supervise the work, and interact with the team there became difficult, if not impossible. This was compensated with delegating, de-centralizing and increasing the use of e-mails and conference calls. Capacity building continued, but more on a local level. One of our very interesting programs that appealed to our youth, The Small Continent was frozen, as movement between areas became very dangerous. This was another loss for our youth. Tamer Institute, along with the rest of the civil society pledged on steadfastness and struggle. Our programs were influenced by the drastic situation and we had to adjust and address emergency needs and priorities. As priorities had to be identified in face of the Israeli brutal war of subjugation, advocacy became more vital and a necessity. Consequently, there was a substantive increase in our advocacy work and networking mostly on issues of education and children's rights. We had to increase the dissemination of information related to the catastrophic situation. Our main struggle focused on education as the fourth pillar of humanitarian aid after food, shelter and medical care. As an Institute dealing with non-formal education, we had a helpful role in supporting the goal of Education For All (EFA) in Palestine in face of Israeli attempts to weaken it. Tamer promoted its interactive educational programs. The process of activating the 64 public children's libraries continued and activities increased, as an alternative means for education and stress release at the same time. However, the major achievement in this regard was the publication of two important and interesting books under the theme of "equal opportunity". Thousands of these books were distributed to schools as a compliment to the curriculum, in co-operation with the Ministries of Education and Culture. This encouraged reading habits, enriched language, imagination and promoted the knowledge of children. Tamer's partnership with the UNICEF was promoted and we had a significant role in the preparatory committees meetings for the United Nations special Session for Children and in establishing Palestinian Children's Rights coalition. Tamer also joined efforts to reactivate The Palestinian Educational Collective and by the end of the year positive steps were made. We also became more involved in the Collective Consultation on Education for All /UNESCO. Tamer’s Website was reconstructed to become an influential tool of information about Tamer's activities and to support our advocacy efforts. "Voices from Palestine" was established for youth to express themselves in matters that deal particularly with the Israeli occupation and aggressions and its effects on Palestinian children. Yara'at weekly page and supplement has also been downloaded on the Web, to give a chance for Arab youth to read the pages and write back. In spite of the horrific measures taken by Israeli occupying forces to kill us morally, as well as physically, we managed to find ways to resist subjugation. The Palestinian people were determined to find useful means of struggle and steadfastness no matter what price is paid. More than ever the solidarity movement with our struggle was gaining momentum assuring us that the struggle of the Palestinian people for liberation democracy, development and peace will find light soon.
The past year saw escalation in the Israeli aggression and sieges imposed on Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza. The situation affected people from all sectors, including agricultural, manufacturer, commercial and services sectors. Israeli tanks and machinery destroyed agricultural lands at large. Most of the remaining land, which is suitable for farming, has not been planted as landlords and farmers have not been allowed to reach their land. Villagers have been trying to overcome some of their loses by cultivating in the backyards of their homes. However, they are usually delayed for long hours at Israeli military checkpoints before they reach the city to sell their products; most of the time they have to throw away their products, as they became rotten and decomposed before arriving at their destination. Farming has always been the backbone for other economic sectors in the Palestinian areas, and with the destruction of farming, many other related sectors were badly affected. This situation has led to the closing down of most small businesses and has brought more and more families to the poverty line as unemployment has been steadily rising. The impact of this situation can be seen in all areas of the West Bank and Gaza, although deterioration is most obvious in Gaza as well as the Northern and Southern WB regions. According to findings of the Palestinian central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), 59.6 percent of the West Bank labor force (ages 15 years up) is currently unemployed. 54.2 percent of WB families (two adults and four children) are living below the poverty line. This is expected to affect children by lowering their food intake, as is confirmed by the findings of the PCBS January 2002 report: 51 percent of households have reduced the quantity of their food intake and 63.2 percent have reduced the quality. Monthly meat consumption was reduced by 71.3 percent and milk products by 54.6 percent. Sixty-seven percent of families said price was a very important factor in purchasing food. This decreased food intake will lead to an increased number of children with nutritional inadequacies leading to such diseases as iron deficiency anemia. No accurate figures are available for Gaza in this regard; however, the situation there is expected to be worse. Things have not been better for the education sector; education in schools and universities was disrupted most of the year because of Israeli military attacks on civilian areas as well as sieges and closures of most Palestinian areas. This situation prevented children and teachers alike from leaving their homes most of the time, a clear violation of Human Rights. According to statistics published by the Palestinian Ministry of Education, 170 school students were killed either by live or rubber-coated Israeli bullets, shelling, bombing, or explosions. 2,427 students were injured 437 of who were left with permanent disabilities. Most of the attacks on children took place during the day while students were in their classrooms or on their way to school. The Israeli forces arrested some 53 students and 22 school teachers. The Israelis also permanently closed 6 schools, and schooling was disrupted many times in more than 150 schools in the West Bank and Gaza. 161 schools were hit and shelled, while Israeli soldiers invaded 60 other schools while the students were in their classrooms. UNICEF estimates that more than 600,000 (61%) of 986,000 children in the West Bank and Gaza were unable to attend school on a regular basis. The percentage in the WB where most of the closures took place is estimated to be much higher. The situation has left Palestinian civil society institutions heavily burdened, as they have to deal with this status of emergency along with their regular programs and projects. Staff, as well as volunteers, found themselves confined to their homes or offices most of the time and had to double their efforts to be able to accomplish their tasks. As a community education institute, the situation we have been facing has obligated Tamer’s team to enhance alternative educational programs and to recruit more volunteers (children and youth) and encourage them to continue with their activities when possible. Working on our primary theme, which is promoting reading and writing and assisting children and youth to truly express their thoughts, seems now more crucial than ever to try to compensate for the damage in the formal education sector. Most of Tamer’s previous projects and activities were continued, although this was not easy; many projects had to be rescheduled, amended, and cancelled. Tamer was forced to freeze one of its most popular youth activities, “The Small Continent”, as this project relies mainly on the youth being able to travel between different Palestinian areas to get to know these areas and to write about them. This was not possible as moving from one area to the other is not only very difficult, but has also become very dangerous and most of the time impossible. It is worth mentioning that disruption in the project implementation in Gaza was less than it was in the WB. The Gaza region has been divided by the Israelis into three major areas, which we managed to cover to a reasonable extent, with the help of our coordinators there. However, to cover the WB Bantustans, we needed a coordinator for each town, village and refugee camp, which was impossible to support financially. The logical alternative was to change times and venues of the activities according to the situation in each proposed region. We also implemented a project to distribute, for free, children’s and youth stories for public schools: Seal Surfer and Journey to Johannesburg were distributed to Palestinian public schools, and were integrated into the children’s literature curriculum to give children an additional incentive towards reading. The move was highly appreciated by children, teachers and parents, which has stimulated us to plan for a wider scale of book distribution to all public, private and UNRWA schools, next year. Tamer also launched emergency projects for some areas and distributed educational kits in the most affected areas of the WB and Gaza; our youth volunteers visited wounded children in many areas, and gave them educational kits. Deterioration of the socio-political situation left its mark even on the environment and on the general health of the population. We arranged for some of our youth teams to participate in community health and environmental workshops, and encouraged them to pass on knowledge they acquired to their friends and colleagues.
National Reading Campaign (NRC) The Reading Campaign is one of Tamer's major projects that has been successfully implemented for more than ten years now in most areas of the West Bank and Gaza. The theme of the Campaign is to promote reading and writing among children as well as all those who are involved in childrearing and teaching. Although we at Tamer are aware of the importance of information technology, which offers extensive data to the public swiftly, we still believe that traditional book reading has a special role in the learning process. We are confident that books have a special power to set free the imagination of the reader and give them the space for better thinking and judging. For this, we are keen on maintaining the bond between children and the book, and this is why we try to share our views and activities with most of the parties involved in children’s welfare. The Campaign's activities are held throughout the year, and are implemented in different ways and forms to meet the main target of encouraging reading and writing, and providing children with the basic tools of alternative education.
The NRW is one of the Campaign's most known and most popular activities as it involves thousands of children and hundreds of schools and civil society institutions. This year, after three months of preparations and coordination among Tamer and several of the concerned parties, the NRW took place between 31st of March and 5th of April 2001, to celebrate International Reading Day. The week's activities varied from workshops in creative writing, story telling, drama, drawing, puppet making, book reviews, writing competitions, movies and theatre performances. Most activities were held in coordination with other civil society institutions as well as the Ministry of Education, UNRWA and the Ministry of Culture. Some local TV and radio stations, as well as local newspapers participated by covering different events in the week. The NRW organized several debates and discussions on the issues that have direct impact on the educational process and the psychological welfare of Palestinian children and youth. Tamer’s Resource Center and the sixty libraries affiliated with it from 90 institutions and community centers were engaged in many activities and workshops during the week. The number of participants and beneficiaries from the week’s activities in the Gaza area were estimated to be around 3,600 with 98 different workshops; in the WB, the 470 workshops that were held involved approximately13,600 people. The Workshops and activities were held in children’s libraries, schools, and community centers, involving parents and teachers to bring their attention to the importance of non-formal education in their children's lives.
Distribution of the NRW workshops in Gaza According to activity
Distribution of NRW Activities in the W B According to Region
A group of volunteers from Haifa also launched a number of activities for Palestinian children in a number of Arab cities within the green line. The first day of the week was an open day with a variety of activities such as story telling, book discussions, drama and acting. The children wrote expressive and moving letters and sent them to children in the West Bank and Gaza to show their solidarity and their support to the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation. The letters emphasized the unity of all Palestinian children regardless of where they live. During the week, our volunteers distributed publications designed and produced to promote the campaign and its objectives: a brochure to encourage reading habits, a poster featuring a child with a special need in the process of exchanging books with other children, and a sticker to promote the week. The promotional material was distributed to schools, libraries, and community centers throughout the West Bank and Gaza. Delivering promotional materials to the different regions was not an easy job, as each Palestinian city and town has been isolated from the rest of the regions. We did a lot of coordinating with delivering companies, foreign and international institutes, and individuals who have special travel permits to guarantee the distribution of the material to all areas. Tamer’s youth also helped in the central children’s book exhibition held in Al-Ahlieh school in Ramallah for five days. A number of publishers, institutes and bookshops displayed their books with an encouraging discount of the sale price; companies and manufacturers of children’s educational materials were also part of the exhibition.
This campaign was promoted during the week and continued throughout the summer. The organizing committee of the campaign set three goals for the activity.
1.To promote reading habits within the Palestinian society. 2.To support existing local libraries by providing them with new books and publications. 3.To encourage local bodies in the cities, villages, and camps to establish libraries in their localities. The donated books were distributed to a number of children’s libraries and charitable organizations. The outcome of the campaign regarding the number of donated books was not very high, yet the training sessions that were given to the volunteering youth who participated in the campaign was by itself a very important step in reaffirming the attitude of the youth towards community and voluntary work. This special passport is a small pocket size book that Tamer uses as a tool to encourage children to read. We believe that reading can take the reader from one world to the other, and can set free the imagination Each participating child was given a reading passport to write down names of the books they read. By the time the 7 different colored passports are filled, 147 books would have been read and consequently they become a member of the reader’s club in the local children’s library in their area. Along with the passports, each child is given a special copybook to write down their thoughts and ideas on the books that they have read. While planning for this year’s NRC, it was decided to announce December 9, 2001 as the day to call upon everyone to regard the book as a valuable present to give to others on special occasions. The organizing committee invited local publishers and bookshops to participate in the activity; their response was great as they offered a very generous discount on children’s books for the day. They also arranged for book fairs to be held in cooperation with some civil society institutions in many regions. Unfortunately, the activities of the day were not implemented due to the escalating Israeli military aggression and closures, which made it impossible for us, or anybody else, to transport the books and other materials from one area to the other. Working with mothers and the visually impaired The mothers’ program is a follow up activity from last year. It started with many preliminary meetings with mothers in villages in the WB and Gaza to create the guidelines for the workshops to be held in those areas. The imposed Israeli closures and state terrorism prevented women in some areas from participating, while in some other areas the project was completed and mothers were involved in story telling and puppet making workshops. The activities concentrated on the importance of reading as asource of knowledge, and the impact of literature on language enrichment and in improving children’s abilities to express themselves, which will in turn improve their abilities and achievements at schools and later in their professional lives as adults. At Tamer's children’s library in Ramallah, mothers were invited for a workshop on "learning difficulties in children” focusing on aggressive behavior and ways to calm children down through reading and playing. The same theme was discussed in workshops for mothers in Askar refugee camp near Nablus and in Habala village near Qalqelia. As the Israeli aggression in Gaza was escalating and becoming more vicious, a number of workshops were held in Gaza to teach mothers how to deal with their children during times of crises. Workshops focused on stories and drama as stress release tools to assist the children in overcoming their fears and worries. Working with visually impaired children is a follow up on a special project that started last year. Tamer’s ultimate goal for this project is to include children with special needs in Tamer's programs. We decided to start with the visually impaired because of their difficulties in reading and in locating sufficient reading activities and materials. In this regard, we printed some children’s stories in Braille and distributed them to six visually impaired institutes and the 60 children’s libraries in the WB and Gaza; a number of copies reached children’s institutions through our different partners. Tamer also arranged for some workshops in visually impaired centers to encourage children and youth under 18 years of age to express themselves and their feelings. Creative writing, drama, and music workshops took place in four cities. In Jerusalem, the children of the Helen Keller School participated in a multi-session workshop to encourage them to speak up and talk about themselves, their agonies as well as their hopes. In Al-Alaiya school in Bethlehem, the workshops concentrated mainly on creative writing in which most participants expressed their views on the Intifada. Their writings reflected great concerns and restless emotions. Many children said they felt much better by the end of the workshop. Al-Wataniya girl's school in Al-Bireh has been subject to extensive Israeli shelling; the experience was unbearable for the girls and left them scared and terrorized. In response to this, we planned a relatively long workshop to help the children relax and to relieve some of their stress. Creative writing, drama, and music were employed during the sessions to help the girls overcome their fears: the girls were accompanied on some outdoor fieldtrips where they sat and listened to the sounds of birds, water, and trees for some time. Later on, they participated in writing the words of a recital on that natural setting, the music tutor who accompanied the girls encouraged them to develop the rhyming words into a song. At Al-Noor Center in Gaza, the workshop was different in the sense that it was run with male and female children together, along with some members of Tamer’s Nakheel teams. The activity started with some drama and creative writing sessions, and developed training on self-confidence and ways to improve self-esteem. My first book competition was launched 7 years ago to give children a chance to explore their talents and express themselves through writing. Children are encouraged to write about themselves, their families, and surroundings to end up with a simple autobiography. This year, the scope was widened and children were invited to write on any subject of their interest. The result was truly impressive; we received stories on health, environment, nature, disabilities, toys and games, and family matters. Most stories were about the experiences of children in the Intifada, their suffering as a result of the Israeli occupation and continuous aggression. The competition resulted in 122 stories written and illustrated by children aged 8-15 years, from the WB and Gaza. This number is the largest Tamer has received since the campaign began. A committee of specialists in children’s literature set up a selection committee and chose 19 books most suitable for publishing and edited them. It was then decided to consider this year’s book as a special edition; as a result all 19 stories were published as a collection in one book. This way, all stories will have equal opportunity for distribution. We also felt that this year’s stories were very special, as many of the children’s writings were related to the suffering of the Palestinian people and to the general situation in the WB and Gaza. Some of Tamer's youth read the rest of the children’s stories not chosen for publishing. They reviewed them and published a summary on some of them in the Yara'at weekly page. During the past year, the RC continued with its plan to acquire books and references on children’s literature. Arab and British Institutes donated some of the books, while others were bought from book exhibitions and bookshops. Book Aid – England donated 120 books; the books were mainly stories and fiction from English literature, part of which were given to Tamer's children library, while the rest are to be sent to our Gaza office to enrich their library. A branch for our resource center has been established in Gaza recently, as closures and sieges have prevented the people of Gaza from benefiting from our Resource Center in Ramallah. A number of activities and workshops have been organized by the RC to promote reading and to shed light on local and Arab children’s literature. RC activities are documented in a newsletter specialized on children’s literature; it is published by Tamer under the name “Taif”. “Taif “ also includes articles, news and critiques on children’s literature in general and Palestinian literature in particular. The publication tries to follow up and track newly published children’s books and present updated book lists for its readers. Our Resource Center supervises and activates sixty children libraries in the WB and Gaza, and aims at improving the standard of these libraries all the time. Part of the RC development for this year was to concentrate on workshops to develop the skills of the librarians and volunteers in the libraries. For the past two years, librarians were trained in the basics of library science and activating their libraries. This year’s training included workshops in creative writing and drama as well as the needed skills that will help librarians attract children to the libraries and encourage them to write about the books they read or any other subject of concern. Librarians participated in a training course to improve their administrative skills (computer, time management and communication skills); advanced training in library science skills (cataloguing, indexing, and classification) was also part of the project. In the beginning of December Tamer collected the questionnaires that were distributed earlier this year to the sixty children’s libraries. After that, our coordinators in the regions visited those libraries to compare the situation on the ground with the written information; the resulting data will be used as a guideline for Tamers’ training projects next year. Training, if necessary, will be arranged for each librarian individually to meet the needs stated by the findings of the questionnaire. As for the children, members, and friends of the libraries, they all received reading passports and were encouraged to write about the books they read. At the end of the year, our coordinators collected the children’s passports and book reviews. The material will be analyzed in a competition. Twenty top readers will be chosen from the group and will be given an encouraging reward. Cultural meetings and workshops The RC conducted a series of meetings for “book critique”. Writers, educators, and specialists in children’s literature were invited to those sessions, and many children’s books were evaluated. Discussions dealt with the ideas, illustrations, language, and the final production of the books. Some of the RC meetings were held in the presence of the authors of the books, others were held with experts in children’s literature as well as publishers to discuss the major obstacles that face the development of local children’s literature. Similar meetings were held at our Gaza office, as it was not possible for the people from Gaza to travel to Ramallah in order to participate in such activities. The Gaza meetings dealt with several related topics such as: “The status of children’s literature in Palestine”, “The Palestinian children’s theatre”, and the “Arab- Israeli conflict in Hebrew children’s literature”. A study day was held in Tamers’ Gaza office to discuss “ How to encourage reading & writing among children”. Representatives from the MOE as well as UNRWA participated, along with a number of educators, writers and librarians. The study day discussed the different roles of the major parties that can make a change and encourage children to adopt better reading habits; the parties were the parents, schools and libraries. In its original plan, the Resource Center was planning for the second libraries’ festival to be held by the end of the year to commemorate the second anniversary of the establishment of the Resource Center. The program of the festival aims to activate the libraries and make them attractive to children. However, with the escalation of the Israeli aggression and the tightening of the sieges on the Palestinians, it was not possible to gather all librarians in one place for the festival. Therefore, we adjusted the plan and decided to supply all the libraries with the needed materials for them to hold their own festival locally and within their premises during the Eid Al-Adha vacation. Most of the libraries were able to hold the festival and therefore conducted the activities with the presence of children, parents, teachers, and other interested parties from the local communities. Programs included story telling, face painting, drawing and singing; activities were meant to be fun and entertaining to help relieve some of the stress, which can be easily noticed in children's’ eyes and movements. Tamer's children’s library in Ramallah serves around 300 members, along with some parents who benefit from our services. This year, some story telling workshops were held for mothers while the children’s workshops concentrated on drama, drawing, and creative writing as well as story telling. Members of the library participated in most activities of the NRW, which were held in schools and community centers in Ramallah; their most impressive participation was in Al-Wataniya school for the visually impaired. For most children, to meet and work closely with visually impaired children was a new and rewarding experience for all children involved. A number of our children were invited to take part in a weekly radio program organized by a local radio station called Amwaj. “The Universe is Ours” was the name given to the program, which gave the children a platform to talk about subjects of their interest. Our participating children prepared some episodes on Palestinian children’s rights; they interviewed other children who talked on their social problems as well as their suffering from being under military occupation. Writing for the media was the focus of one of the children’s workshops, as a group of 15 boys and girls, members of our library, were given relatively long training in simplified journalistic work. The training ended with the children producing the second issue of the magazine “The Blossoms of Tamer”- members of the library produced the first issue at the end of 2001. Some library members were enrolled in a drawing workshop to prepare sketches on children’s rights. The sketches were handed over to UNICEF to take part in the “ New York Children’s Exhibition” during the UNGASS meeting that was supposed to take place in September 2001. The drawings reflect the worries and needs of Palestinian children who are eager to live in peace and security, want to be free to move, learn and play and to maintain their right to live in a free-unoccupied homeland. Some members of the library participated in the celebrations of the National Flag Day, they - along with the help of Tamers’ youth team, prepared hundreds of red, white, green and black balloons and distributed them to other children who were gathering in the Ramallah city center. The children marched around the city with their flags, and brought a joyful atmosphere to the sad city. “Nakheel Teams” is the name given to our youth volunteer teams that are spread across Gaza and the West Bank in the areas of Nablus, Tulkarem, Jericho, Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Ramallah. Nakheel Team members, whose ages range from 13-20, used to meet each year in a camp called “The Summer Days.” Workshops during the “days” concentrate on the youth’s active participation in their communities as well as on improving their knowledge and skills in aspects such as creative writing, reporting, drama and story telling. The youth were encouraged to express their thoughts and hopes, and to discuss their problems as teenagers. Last year, due to the Israeli military measures, holding such activities became very risky, and accordingly “Summer days” was cancelled. All teams were supposed to hold a one-day meeting (twice a year), to exchange views and discuss youth problems and needs. West Bank teams were able to hold a meeting in Ramallah during the month of July, but unfortunately the Gaza team could not participate because of the tight siege imposed on Palestinian areas. The second meeting that was scheduled for last November did not take place, as movement became impossible even within West Bank cities and villages. Tamers’ teams managed to partially overcome this obstacle and kept in touch by telephone, fax and email. Our youth coordinator managed (with difficulty) to visit most areas to coordinate between the Teams and to supervise their work. In Gaza, a compensation activity was held with the participation of around 50 male and female youth. “ The First Orange Festival for Youth” was the name given to the activity that included workshops and debates on issues of concern to youth. An educational tour to some important and historical places in the area was followed by a workshop on the importance of oral history to maintain and protect one’s nationality and identity. A couple of plays and a folk dance show were also part of the festival. Members of the Nakheel Teams are spread over four groups; Yara’at, Sirb, and Voices from Palestine. Each member chooses to join the group that matches their interests and talents. “The Small Continent" is one of the most popular youth projects that Tamer supervises. The project requires youth to travel around Palestinian areas, especially those that have historical and cultural significance. During the past few years, the youth participants expressed their satisfaction with the project and forged stronger ties with the land after their tours. The youth gathered all sorts of information on the places that they passed by, and organized the material along with photos to be published in a book by Tamer. Unfortunately due to the Israeli invasion and siege of Palestinian areas, travelling from one place to the other became very difficult and risky. Accordingly, the “ Small Continent” was postponed. Yara'at pages have been produced by Tamer's youth for five years now. It is a weekly page distributed with Al- Ayyam daily newspaper, a bimonthly supplement is also part of Yara'at’s team accomplishments. The page was originally designed for youth writings in literature, but this year the team widened the scope and initiated a new section to enable their readers to present and discuss community related issues and problems, though keeping its literary style. Another column has been designated to write back to writers whose articles were not selected for publishing. Yara'at continued to establish new "Friends of Yara'at " in the different regions of the WB and Gaza. Members of the groups are to work as correspondents for the page and supplement, but closures and Israeli military actions made this very difficult. In order to improve their standards, the Yara’at editorial team attended some training sessions in writing as well as other essential aspects for laying out the Page and Supplement. The training ended with eight of the members forming the “Yara’at Artists’ Group”, which became responsible of the sketches and drawings needed for the pages. The editorial team regarded highly the outcome of the training sessions and invited youth writers, artists, and editors to share their individual experiences with other youth by designating a special Yara’at supplement for this goal. The supplement was very special in the sense that it was so encouraging for children and youth that are talented but hesitant to show their talent or talk about it. Another supplement was fully devoted to children’s and youth writings on the environment. The aim was to strengthen the bond between Palestinian youth and their surroundings and encourage maintaining and protecting the environment. The topic was tackled in different forms of writings; they included short stories, poems, articles and news. One of last years' supplements, which was intended to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Yara'at, was devoted completely to the Palestinian Refugees' issue. Palestinian children and youth from Jordan and Lebanon provided articles revealing their anxiety about not being able to return to their homeland. They also wrote moving and supportive letters to the Palestinians under Israeli occupation in the WB and Gaza. “SIRB” is the Arabic word given for a group of flying birds, and it is the name which a group of Tamer’s youth chose for themselves. “SIRB” members share one common interest and hobby, which is photography. To help them improve this talent, they were encouraged to organize themselves in a team. Last August the team was formed, with around ten boys and girls who were ready to receive some training and tips. The team made their own arrangements with a specialized local filmmaker who gave them basic training in camera and video photography. SIRB members started with some experimental projects; they filmed some of the institutes’ activities including those of the National Reading Week such as the book fair and workshops. The main aim is to be able to produce educational films on issues like adolescent's worries, environment, and health; they are now working on a documentary film about the city of Ramallah. Voices From Palestine is an English electronic newsletter, run by a group of Tamers’ youth who were in need of an independent platform to express their views with regard to the current tragic situation in Palestine. Members of “Voices” are also hoping to deliver and reflect a true picture of their suffering from having to live under occupation, and being denied their basic rights, something youth around the world take for granted. Thus far, two issues of the newsletter have been produced; they have been accomplished by the accumulated efforts of “Voices” members who worked as a team during all stages until the issue was released on the Web. The first issue was solely written by “Voices” youth, while in the second issue, some foreign students from Birziet University- along with the “Voices” team, participated and wrote about their experiences and impressions of the current situation in Palestine. Although Tamer relies mainly on experts and specialized trainers to implement its projects, members of the Nakheel Teams have a lot to do in this regard. Tamer extended great efforts in training youth members with the goal of empowering them. The outcome is reflected in the participation of our youth in training other children and youth, and in passing on to them the knowledge and experience which they have acquired.
Workshops were held in story telling, creative writing, radio broadcasting, mask making as well as expressing the self through drama, drawing and playing.
The meeting, organized by ESCWA and the UN Socio-Economic Committee, discussed and evaluated the accomplishments and recommendations of the Third International Youth Conference of Prague. The Beirut meeting discussed and formulated a paper that will be adopted by the Arab Youth delegation for the Forth International Youth Conference in August 2001.
Youth leaders were escorted on fieldtrips to youth institutes in the US, to see for themselves the activities and programs of such groups in order to connect these youth programs with their programs at home.
The Environment and Community Health Projects Although Tamer’s name has always been related to reading and writing, the institute was never distant from vital issues, which affect and harm the community. This concern is reflected through encouraging and directing children to read and write on issues with major impact on their surroundings. The Palestinian areas of the WB and Gaza have been going through rapid socio-political changes; some of which came as a result of the natural growth of the population, while most other changes were enforced by the Israeli military occupation of Palestinian areas. The most obvious and outrageous impact of the occupation’s measures is the fact that more than one million Palestinians in Gaza area have to manage their lives in a very limited area of land; population density in Gaza (1400/ sq km) is one of the highest in the world. In the WB, the military orders have left some 1.9 million people crowded in tiny residential areas, after confiscating most of their agricultural lands, either to be used for military purposes or to establish Israeli settlements. Thousands of hectares of trees and agricultural land have been violently destroyed by Israeli tanks and machinery. Most water wells were isolated and farmers and landowners were denied access to their water. Such Israeli measures have caused the deterioration of the standard of living of the Palestinians which has left negative effects on the health and environment sectors as a large number of families are forced to live in one or two rooms, with little water for their daily use. As a Community Education Institute, we found that by introducing community health and environmental issues into some of our activities, we would be involving the children and youth in a positive role if directed properly in the aspects of good health and a healthy environment.
The Environment Project Our youth teams (Nakheel) in the Center of the WB went through general training in environmental related issues. The topics dealt with the role of the public in maintaining a better environment with special focus on the interrelation of environmental issues between all the peoples of the universe regardless of the natural and political borders that appear on the world maps. The training focused on some local problems such as water shortage, inefficient ways of waste and garbage disposal, placement of industrial areas close to residential areas, recession of plantation and agricultural areas, and many other phenomena. Ramallah, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem Nakheel team members will be passing on the knowledge they acquired to other children in some UNRWA and public schools in their areas. The project also encouraged children and youth to write their own books or stories on environmental issues that concerns or worries them most; a number of children responded and sent us their writings. The most suitable stories will be published and will therefore encourage more children to explore environmental related issues.
Community Health workshops The Community Health Project was implemented by Tamer as part of our community educational program as formal education in Palestine barely includes this vital issue in its curriculum. Our project does not claim to be able to fill this large gap all at once, so we chose to address the youth and children in order to draw their attention to the elements of healthy living. Our youth teams of Ramallah and Jerusalem participated in the workshops. Workshops covered issues like general health, diet and nutrition, personal hygiene, sex education, dangerous habits like smoking and drinking, adolescent physical and psychological needs, early marriage and marriages between relatives, AIDS and other transmitted diseases. Two community health workshops were held in Kofr Nimeh and in Tulkarem for mothers. Most, but not all the topics mentioned above were tackled in the mothers’ workshops, with emphasis on the topics which have relevance to the health of family members in general: food and nutrition, hygiene, and general health. Our main intention was to bring mothers attention to the vitality of the health issues in their children’s lives. This also makes it easier for us to later approach the youth in those areas without having to confront some traditional attitudes, which believe that some of the community’s health topics have to stay as a taboo and should not be discussed with children and youth. We are now preparing for a second round of workshops in community health to be held for the youth in both Kofr Nimeh and Tulkarem. Similar workshops are scheduled for the Gaza area in January 2002.
Distribution of Books and Kits Tamer’s policy of book distribution is normally implemented in a way to reach the largest number of beneficiaries possible. For this we try to distribute books to libraries, schools and community centers as well as individuals. This year, and as a follow up to Tamer’s Emergency Educational Project that was launched in 2000, our youth teams in some areas distributed 700 educational kits for injured students in hospitals and rehabilitation centers; 500 of the kits were distributed in the WB, and 200 in Gaza. Each kit contained 5 books, an educational game, and a cassette. As a response to the emergency situation in the WB and Gaza, an Arab institute in Haifa city called “ The Friends of Arab Children”, supplied Tamer with a donation of books worth around $ 10,000 US. The donating Institute describes this book campaign, which has been launched for the second year now, as “a bridge towards continuos communication” between the Palestinians within the Green Line and the Palestinians in the WB and Gaza. Tamer’s Gaza office, in turn, distributed the donated books to some 16 children’s libraries and community centers in the Gaza area. The libraries were invited by Tamer to participate in a workshop on the role of public libraries in promoting reading and knowledge. The workshop also put general guidelines for the organization and implementation of activities within children’s libraries; a debate on literature for younger children followed later on.
A Special Project for Refugee Camps As a result of the Israeli closures and military measures, most villages and refugee camps in the North, Center, and South of the WB have become isolated. Children and youth from those areas were unable to join any of the activities, which were held in nearby centers. For this, we coordinated with other community service institutes to implement a special project in a number of refugee camps, which could be reached by our trainers. The project took place in 5 refugee camps with 36 hours (over two months) of training for each; training covered the following aspects: In the Tulkarem refugee camp, a drama workshop was held for around 20 boys and girls, the participants experienced writing a script, stage preparation, lighting as well as acting and producing. The final work was played on stage for the local community and was filmed on videotape. In the Balata camp, where most of the people come originally from the village of Al-Abbsiya across the green line, 18 participants were trained to gather oral history from the older generation that lived in the village until 1948. Cassette recorders and video cameras were given to the participants to document the given information and the impressions of the people who were interviewed. In Al- Ama’ry camp, boys and girls were encouraged to express themselves and to write about subjects of their own interest. This creative writing workshop gave the children an opportunity to explore their talents and to become acquainted with the basics of writing articles and journalistic reports. A handcraft and puppet-making workshop was held in Aida camp. A number of kindergarten teachers, along with children, participated in the sessions and were trained in making simple toys and puppets as well as in drawing. The children themselves, who felt very proud of their productions and wanted to show them to other children from their community, organized an exhibition at the end of the sessions. In Al-Fawwar camp, 16 boys and girls interested in acting and stage production participated in practical training in this field. They started by reading a number of stories suitable for theatre production. The team members who went through all the necessary steps to bring the work to its final stages chose one of the texts. The training, which was supervised directly by a local specialist in production, ended with the team performing their work on stage in front of an audience from the local community.
Promoting Children’s Literature: Promoting children’s literature has always been a major concern for the Institute, which tries to coordinate its efforts with all parties to produce high quality children’s and youth books. Tamer, who strongly believes in the importance of promoting reading among children, stresses also quality books. Tamer’s programs have always encouraged local writers to produce quality children’s books on subjects of special importance to children and the community dealing with Human Rights such as “ Celebrating Diversity and Equal Opportunity”. For this, most of Tamer's publications for the past two years have been carefully chosen to go along with this theme; to direct children’s and youth’s attention to the need to accept and understand others regardless of sex, race, religion or disabilities. We are currently trying to promote this theme as we are planning for specialized workshops to be held for children’s book writers’, children’s books illustrators’ and editors. So far, two British experts in writing and illustration have been contacted and invited to supervise some of the workshops which will start early next year. The aim is to have local writers and illustrators produce quality books on the subject Regarding illustrations, it is worth mentioning that Tamer has been supervising a specialized workshop in the illustration of children’s books. The activity was planned mainly to improve the standards of specialized artists. In Ramallah the training has been going on for around six months now with fourteen young artists (half of which are girls), while in Gaza the training started in mid November with 20 young artists (6 of which are girls). Both groups will eventually be given 252 hours of training over a 9-month period. Three of the trainees as well as the two artists were invited, along with Tamer’s General Director, to participate in the “Arab book Fair” in Paris last December; the main theme of the fair’s activities was “Children’s and Youth Books in the Arab World”.
Tamer’s publishing unit continues to supervise the technicalities of all Tamer’s publications including children’s and youth books, newsletters, brochures, posters and leaflets. During the last year, Tamer’s publishing unit produced the following youth stories and picture books: The Seal Surfer: A children's picture book by Michel Forman, (translated from English). This is a nice adventure story of a little boy and his seal friend, the boy who was brave and honest appeared in some pictures to be disabled, although there was no mention of his disability in the written text. Journey to Johannesburg; A youth story by Beverley Naidoo, (translated from English) about the South African youth struggle against Apartheid. A black girl and her brother decided to walk a hundred miles away from home to find their mother who works as a maid in the city. By doing so, the children were hoping to save their little sister’s life because she was very ill. Seal Surfer and Journey to Johannesburg were distributed to the public schools, and were integrated into the children’s literature curriculum to give children an additional incentive towards reading. Tamer also translated and published Chain of Fire by Beverley Naidoo, which is a youth story on racial discrimination in South Africa. The struggle of a university student for justice and freedom was reflected and admired throughout the pages, and although there were many sad incidents in the story, it is seen by the youth as an inspiration to reject injustice and racism. Al-Tanneen, meaning "the Dragon", is a Picture book written by the Palestinian writer Sonia Nimer. It is the story of a princess who, by her wisdom and imagination, helped to save her community from an attacking dragon. The story encourages children not to give up or lose hope during difficult times. Al-Hattab is an Arabic - French children’s book that was produced in cooperation among the French Cultural Center and the Palestinian Ministry of Culture and the Tamer Institute Resource Center. The story is one of the narrated Palestinian folk stories which was gathered and documented by Dr. Shareef Kana'neh and illustrated by Muhammad Saleh. The publishing unit also produced Tamer’s newsletters “Taif” and “Al-Zajel”. “Taif” has always been recognized as a tool to document and evaluate the RC’s activities, and although it is still serving this mission, Taif’s mission has been broadened to play a role in Tamer’s campaign to promote children’s literature. The last issue of “Taif “ includes articles, news and critiques on children’s literature in general and Palestinian literature in particular. The publication tries to follow up on and track newly published children’s books and present updated book lists for its readers. Two issues of Tamers’ Arabic newsletter- Alzajel were published during the year. They were distributed to most educational institutions and community centers. Alzajel gives the reader an opportunity to be acquainted with Tamers’ activities and projects. The publishing unit is producing “My First Book” for the fifth year now. Greater effort was put this year towards improving the quality of production; the outcome was a fascinating collection of nineteen stories written by our children.
Several workshops designed to empower our staff and volunteers were held for Tamer’s members in Gaza and the West Bank. In Gaza, training sessions were held during September and covered most aspects and skills needed for a good administrator: time management, running of meetings, report writing, archiving, minutes writing, communication skills (internal and external) and documentation. Eleven youth volunteers benefited from this training as well as our staff. A course in how to use the computer: training for Windows, Microsoft office and E-mail was organized for members of the staff as well as Tamer’s volunteers. The training concluded in November. Our Gaza coordinator participated in a training program that was held in Sweden last summer; the program introduced the participants to the management of libraries and resource centers. As for our staff and volunteers in Ramallah, we started the program by conducting several meetings with the director of a prominent capacity building organization. We consulted him on several issues of management and developed an outline for a detailed program that will be set for 2002, providing the situation permits. Along this line, our staff and some volunteers held several meetings with specialists on issues of concern to the Institute: oral history, creative writing, management, proposal writing, reporting and editing were among the subjects covered during these workshops. A number of the staff members enrolled in an English Language course at AMIDEAST in Ramallah, to improve their English. One member of Tamer's youth leaders was enrolled in a Web design course, to enable the Institute to carry out the development and the updating of its Web page. Recently, Tamer invited some of the most prominent Palestinian writers and editors to participate in a committee of consultants in children's book selection; the committee helped our staff to set the right categories for book selection.
Conferences, Exhibitions, and Networking Tamer was represented in the 10th NGO Symposium of Turkey that was held in Istanbul on the theme "Youth Participation in the Civil Society". The symposium, which took place between the 2nd and 4th of November 2001, offered youth groups a platform to exchange experiences and discuss all sorts of obstacles which discourage youth groups and delay their participation in community work and services. The symposium gave our youth groups a chance to establish new links with youth groups abroad. Tamer participated in the Annual Meeting of the "Collective Consultation of NGO's on Education for All" that was held in Bangkok between the 12th and 14th July 2001. The meeting in Bangkok discussed the role of civil societies in Education for All (EFA). It also helped to create a dialogue between all partners in topics like facilitating innovation and capacity building. The meeting also discussed the measures needed to wide spread the concept of EFA. Our representative to the conference took part in the session that dealt with " Assessing, documenting, disseminating and developing the NGO and their role and contribution to EFA". She brought the attention of the group to "Education in Crisis Situations", and asked the conference to consider lobbying to halt any violation of the EFA goals in areas under occupation or in crisis situations. The Euro-med Civil Forum was held in Brussels on the 19-20th of October 2001 to follow up on and try to implement the recommendations of a previous meeting that was held in Marcella to support the Palestinian cause. The conference called on the participants to enhance their campaigns in Europe and other parts of the world. The campaigns are to work towards providing international protection for the Palestinians and towards ending the Israeli occupation of Palestine. The meeting also called on The European Community to boycott the products of Israeli settlements, to halt the sale of arms to Israel, and to bring Israeli war criminals before the International Court of Justice. Tamer was invited to Sardinia, Italy, to participate in a round table discussion on multiculturalism in the Mediterranean countries. A book exhibition was held along with the meetings, and Tamer's books were displayed at the exhibit. Tamer's representative presented a paper on the Palestinian children’s libraries and their activities. She briefed the gathering on Tamer's projects to promote reading and writing among children. She also provided details about the publishing sector in Palestine and the difficulties and obstacles that obstruct the development of children’s publications.
The workshop employed structured role-play, simulation and related techniques to challenge assumptions and stimulate thinking. It also addressed diverse issues such as drugs, alcohol and solvent awareness, bullying and antisocial behavior, interpersonal relationships and purposeful listening and communication. The success of the practical parts of the sessions was mainly due to the effective cooperation between LTA and the other educational institutes in the district.
There was focus on future coordination between French and Palestinian publishers, artists, musicians, and translators. A special meeting dealt with the status of literature in the Arab world in general, and with Palestinian children’s and youth literature in particular. The participants analyzed and discussed some joint Arab and French future works. Three young Palestinian artists, affiliated with Tamer, were also invited to the same occasion, and were engaged in a special program that was tailored for them. They visited many art exhibitions and art schools.
The decision to form the coalition was made parallel to the preparations made by some Palestinian NGOs to participate in the UNGASS in New York. Tamer, along with three other institutions, found it critical to form a coordinating body for all those who work for Palestinian children’s interests and rights, hoping that such a move will bring together all efforts in this regard. The Coalition Charter stresses the importance of the articles in the 1989 International Agreement on Children’s’ Rights as well as the fourth Geneva Convention on protecting the civilians in times of war. The Coalition is currently discussing the Draft Palestinian Children’s Law, which was formulated last year by the Palestinian Ministry of Justice. Tamer is also a member of the Palestinian Educational Network (PEN), which aims to coordinate the efforts of educational Institutions in order to better serve and support the Palestinian educational sector. The PEN is trying to create a platform to help spread all creative ideas and experiences regarding education. A series of workshops and study days will be organized for formal and non- formal educational institutions to facilitate their engagement in serious discussions on how to improve the education sector in Palestine. The first workshop, which will be held early next year, will focus on the damages and losses in the education sector that resulted from the Israeli military aggression against, and siege of, the Palestinian areas. Participants are to discuss projects and coordinate their activities to support the educational process and help children and teachers to overcome some of their problems. Local media will be invited to participate in covering the PEN activities; the PEN aims to lobby local press, radio and TV stations to persuade them to allot more airtime for educational topics. However, lobbying the local media is not an alternative to having our own specialized newsletters; several issues of the PEN newsletter, Al-Multaqa Al-Tarbawi (the Ed |