the UNRWA school, drama and other stories

Saba ekhair to all of you,

hope you're all well. The weather in Abu Dis is not the best today: torrential rain, strong winds which resemble more mini tornados. It's good fun really and I'm enjoying it a lot.
It means that there are no kids at Dar Assadaqa today, so I'm using this opportunity to update the blog and tell you a bit about my first week at the UNWRA school.

Everything is going well, the teachers are lovely (especially our school coordinator, Aemna, who refers to me as her sadiqaa, her friend. well, she is my friend to, even though we don't speak the same language we communicate together just fine:)
Some of the kids are hard to handle: it's easy for them to take advantage as neither me nor Sarah speak Arabic very well. But it's getting better, the trick is to divide them up in groups and keep them busy. And once they're actually doing something, they come up with very good things.
Especially the girls in the 8th grade. We're currently devising a play together and it's going very well, as we're adapting Cinderella to the Palestinian context.
The girls are enjoying the devising process and all of them are involved in various ways. Practically the whole class comes to Dar Assadaqa on Saturdays to do more drama and develop the play further.
I'll upload some pictures in the next couple of days, so watch this space.

Last Monday me an Sarah watched one of their school performances which was held in the school yard in the morning. It was lovely as all of the pupils, teachers and headmistress were part of the audience.
Here are a couple of pictures.

On this note, have a lovely weekend and I shall keep you update about UNWRA, the kids, cinderella in Palestine and other mischiefs:)

Ma'Salama,

Vesna

Starting to use this blog again

Two CADFA volunteers from the UK, Summereen and Joe, have been working for the past three months at the UNWRA school. They have done lots of good things with students there and had a great time.
In January, there will be more volunteers going from UK to Abu Dis.... We hope that they will start to use this blog so that people at SCCS and Maria Fidelis and the UNWRA school can stay in touch!

SCCS International Evening

SCCS International Evening 26th March 2010

Tonight SCCS will be hosting its International Evening. We will be celebrating the links that we have with our partner schools, including the UNRWA School in Abu Dis. We will be listening to Palestinian music, eating Palestinian food and painting our faces with the colours of the Palestinian flag. We're also going to be making badges showing the Palestinian flag. Watch this space for more photos!

Greetings from Maria Fidelis

Greetings from Maria Fidelis School to all our friends at the UNRWA School in Abu Dis. Thank you for all your written messages, they are on display in both our staffrooms.

Thank you to all the staff and students I met during the day I spent in your school. Everyone was so welcoming and friendly. I enjoyed the day very much and learnt a great deal from all, especially how important education is to all Palestinians.
A special greeting and thanks to Nader and his family for the wonderful welcome and hospitality shown to me when I visited his home for lunch and got to meet his beautiful children and new born baby. The photographs of them are much appreciated and enjoyed by my family.
Since returning back to Maria Fidelis I have shared with my colleagues and students all I heard and saw whilst in Palestine . I have shown my students photographs of the wonderful things to see in Jerusalem , your school and Abu Dis. What has shocked them are the photographs of the huge and ugly wall that surrounds Adu Dis and dominates all your lives. They were shocked to hear how the wall prevents you having access to your families, land and work, and how your travel is restricted and you can not get to the Holy Places in Jerusalem .
I hope you enjoy the photographs of my students preparing their greetings to the students of UNRWA School and of the UNRWA students who worked with me on sending their greetings back to the students of Maria Fidelis. At the moment a number of my colleagues and myself are looking at ways we can strengthen the links that have been established between our two schools. We are keen to work alongside South Camden School and hope this joint blog will help us make regular contact so that all three schools can learn from each other and share what is good in Camden and Abu Dis.
Looking forward to hearing from UNRWA school and especially Nader.

Mike

Ahmed Visits SCCS

A few weeks ago Ahmed from Abu Dis visited SCCS. He came to a School Council meeting where he talked to students about the forthcoming youth visit in July. Safiyyah, Zaynab and Maha are the students from SCCS who are taking part in the Youth Visit. There will also be other opportunities for people to get involved over the course of the week. The week is going to culminate with a performance in the theatre at SCCS on Friday evening.

Following the School Council meeting Ahmed went to meet with some Year 7 students who asked him lots of questions about life in Palestine. They wanted to know about education in Abu Dis and about the difficulties facing young people in their daily lives. Ms Gil and Ms Robinson showed them some photos from their recent visit. It was a really interesting and informative session and the students all asked whether Ahmed could teach them every week!!

CADFA Conference

Yesterday the annual CADFA conference was held at SOAS in Central London. One of the highlights of the day was the feedback from the recent teachers' visit to Abu Dis. We looked at photos and discussed what had been learnt from the visit. We also began to think about the next steps and how we can take things forward. We all agree that communication is the key and so I'm going to make a determined effort to keep this blog updated!

Back in Camden, missing Abu Dis!

Reme Gil and some of the UNRWA Girls

Spray painting on the separation wall to show how much we like the link between SCCS and the UNRWA School in Abu Dis!

Abu Dis to Camden...
So the SCCS teachers have been back at school this week and have been telling colleagues and students all about their time in Abu Dis! We have lots of very good photos and are preparing to create a display outside of the main hall. We also have the lovely messages that the UNRWA students recorded and we're looking forward to listening to them with our students.

We're beginning to think about our next steps and this week three local newspapers have agreed to publish a story and pictures about our visit to Palestine. The National Union of Teachers has also agreed to write an article and publish some photos in next month's edition of their magazine.

It is the CADFA Conference on Saturday which will be a good opportunity to report back to others in Camden and to think about our plans for the future. We'll let you know how it goes!