Your donations to Palestine, Hebron
I spent 10 weeks in Hebron in the West Bank, studying Arabic, volunteering, and learning about the Politics of the region. As part of the volunteering, I ran English classes at Al-Arroub camp– one of the refugee camps outside of Hebron city.
When I was working at the refugee camp, I wanted to buy resources for the community centre where we were teaching English. Additionally, as Eid was approaching, I wanted to gift the classes with Eid presents. After mentioning this to my mum she spread the word and in the end our family and friends donated to £2000 altogether.
Due to the many generous donations, I was able to carry out a lot more than the initial idea for Al-Arroub camp. Here is a breakdown of where I distributed your donations…
Al-Arroub camp
The leader of the community centre provided me with a list of all the resources they need such as art supplies and whiteboards etc. so our donation money provided the centre with all the resources they were in need of. Additionally we bought Eid gifts for the 50 students we taught there…
From working with children at the camp I learnt that all UNRWA services were not running schools due to strikes — which lasted around 4 months. This included: rubbish collection, the only health centre (for over 12,000 residents), and schools. Considering this large gap in their education, I think it was worthwhile to invest in the children and their community centre.
Fawwar Camp
Fawwar camp is the second camp outside of Hebron city. It is home to over 12,000 refugees. Our donation to Fawwar camp went to the community centre for children. They outlined to me all the resources that would benefit them at the centre such as sports equipment. Additionally our donation enabled them to run a three-day summer programme of activities including a day trip to a nearby city for the young children.
Families in H2
H2 is an Illegal Israeli settlement in the city of Hebron. It is one of the only settlements where both Palestinians and Israelis live. Palestinians who live in or near the settlement experience many hardships including harassment, violence and poverty. After witnessing the situation in and around H2 I wanted to use some of the donation to help Palestinian families.
To help affectively put the donations to use I was introduced to Hamed who runs a charity aiding families in the area who need urgent support. He took me to visit a lady who lives near the settlement on Shuhada street. She was struggling with very poor living conditions. As I witnessed her apartment was not adequate for her family the windows had bullet holes shot during clashes which often occur on this street in Hebron. Due to this location the family are exposed to tear gas and even live ammunition. She told us that he daughters health was especially suffering due to the damp conditions of the rooms.
Our donation helped the family to move out as soon as possible to aid the rent for the families new home. I am confident this was a great use of the money to help support a struggling family in the area.
Nisreen
I visited a Palestinian woman who lives with her children in H2. She is an artist and human rights activist. Her husband was a human rights activist and was killed at the checkpoint to H2 by teargas over 10 years ago.
Nisreen has experienced harassment and violence in her life for standing up against the occupation. Her family’s existence remaining in H2 despite the challenges, financially, and emotionally is a testament to her strength. She was happy to receive our donation to show support to her family’s place remaining in her home and resisting the illegal occupation of their land.
I distributed the remainder of the money to: the Orphanage in Hebron, the Quran school and other families who I met and learnt about their struggles.
Thank you for trusting me with your donations, I feel that it went a long way for the families and children of Hebron and the refugee camps.