الثلاثاء، 27 مارس 2012
مشروع المتطوعين من فلسطين
Volunteer place in London
CADFA EVS project to London
CADFA are happy to announce that we have secured funding in the first instance for one volunteer to work in London for three months in autumn 2012. This is part of the European Union EVS Scheme.The work will be to help CADFA’s work in a variety of ways – with general office work, talks, sales and support for link work with Palestine in schools, community centres etc. The volunteer will stay with a family in London. Food, transport costs and a small allowance will be provided.
We are looking for a volunteer aged under thirty who has
· a good understanding of the work of CADFA in Palestine and in London
· good English
· Clear ideas about what he/ she wants to learn from this experience
· Good ideas about ways to use this experience when he/ she returns to Palestine.
Applications in the form of a letter about yourself to: Abdulwahab Sabbah, Dar Assadaqa, Abu Dis.
Closing date is 30th April 2012.
تحية للجميع
كذلك اود ان أبلغ كل اصدقائنا بان المجموعة الثالثة من المتطوعين ستكون في ابوديس يوم الاحد 1 نيسان نرحب بهم ونتمنى لهم اقامة مفيدة وممتعه في ابوديس، سيحضر معهم مجموعة من المتضامنين من اصدقائنا في كامدن حيث سيكون هناك جولة في ارجاء الوطن لمدة اسبوع وسيشاركون في مؤتمر التوأمة السابع الذي سيعقد في مدنية جنين.
نرحب بمشاركة الجميع
الأربعاء، 21 مارس 2012
Dar Assadaqa – 20/03/2012
Yesterday at Dar Assadaqa I had a class with 20 young men about the environment in
Palestine. On the timetable for Dar Assadaqa there is a slot for the environment. But I
think in the case of Abu Dis the best way to use this time is to establish an environment
club that actually works pro-actively to make Abu Dis a better place to live. Over the
course of an hour, we developed a plan to improve the environment in and around Abu
Dis.
The first step was to build on what was discussed by the previous group of EVS
volunteers. Getting a list of names of people who come to Dar Assadaqa who would be
interested in being part of the environment club. Secondly, we decided that something
should be done about the all the rubbish in the streets and that we could arrange a time
to clean the main street in Abu Dis or university street to start with. We also agreed it
would be good to buy some seeds from the shop in Azariya/ Bethany and plant trees
such as pine and olive trees. No-one really knew where we could plant these trees but it certainly left us with food for thought.
The other important tenet of improving the environment, not just in Abu
Dis but in Palestine generally, was green education. We came up with the idea to teach
about the environment in schools because it hardly ever gets taught about in schools.
Everyone concurred that the most of effective way of persuading people to change their
attitudes was to begin with young people. There was a good idea by one of the lads to
ask someone from Al Quds university who studies the environment to give a talk at
schools in Abu Dis. Finally, we suggested we should write to the Ministry of Agriculture
in Ramallah to ask for some sort of project support.
The land is very important to people in Palestine, Palestinians take great pride farming
their land and growing their olive trees. The occupation is the main cause of
environmental degradation, as a result of the Israelis using Palestinian areas as a
rubbish dump, and a place where waste sewage from settlements collects. Water
appropriation from wells and aquifers on Palestinian land by the authorities is also a
huge problem. And of course there are no services such as rubbish collection.
However, I think by changing many peoples’ attitude toward the environment in Abu
Dis could make it a more beautiful place. In addition, we all shared the view that
protection and greater respect for the environment is an effective form of
resistance to the occupation that will have a positive impact on the lives of all
Palestinians.