Getting ready for prisoner march in Kentish Town London

This was to draw attention to the issue of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, in particular child prisoners

CADFA women’s visit March 12

From one of the CADFA volunteers in Abu Dis

Last week we had the task of interviewing a number of young Palestinian women to select candidates for the upcoming CADFA women’s visit in March.

We interviewed around 15 women for across Palestine, all from a variety of backgrounds each with a unique story to tell. Needless to say we were blown away by the calibre of candidate we encountered. The girls were mostly under 25 and almost all students studying subjects like English, Gender, Media and International Human rights law. Each girl had a unique experience of the occupation and how it affected her life and in the course of the interviews we heard many incredible stories that all deserved a chance to be heard, narrowing it down to the ten best was no easy task and I was not envious of anyone involved in making that incredibly tough decision.

If these girls are an indication of the intelligence, passion and dedication of young Palestinian women then the future is very bright for the next generation in Palestine.

I would wholeheartedly advise everyone in London to get involved in the women’s visit in any capacity you can. Meet these girls, hear their stories and take in their unique perception of what life under occupation and life in Palestine is like for young women, if it affects you half as much as it did us it will be a very worthwhile experience.

Sunshine, showers and sleeping students...

Sunday 29th Jan was a bright and blustery day in Abu Dis, and it was also the day of my first English lesson with the Dar Assadaqa Womens Group. I first noticed them standing in a group at the top of the steps and remember thinking "Ah it's nice to finally see more women at DAS", but I had totally forgotten that they were here to have an English class...with me...yikes!!

I stood at the front of the class looking out at the room of women and feeling like a total fraud, but the kind and warm nature of each and every single one of the women in my class soon put me at my ease. They were all adamant that they wanted to focus on English conversation rather than grammar or writing which suited me just fine, it's shocking how much you forget over the years and some of the school children of Abu Dis could definitely teach me a thing or two when it comes to diagramming a sentence!

The hour long lesson flew by as we learnt how to introduce ourselves, where we were from, how old we were, what we did, how many children we had (lots!), how old they were and what their names were...phew. This section definitely took the longest as the women of Abu Dis are lucky enough to have lovely big families :-)

Initially I was concerned that the language barrier would be difficult to navigate around but thanks to one or two excellent English speakers in the class (hmm will need to come up with something more difficult for their next lesson), it proved to be OK. In fact better than OK, I actually had a laugh with these women and was struck by the commonalities in our lives and situations rather than the differences. There are some real characters in my class and I'm really going to enjoy getting to know them over the next couple of months. 

I have a feeling it's going to be a real education, more for me rather than them I'm sure...

Please note Fairuza is no reflection on the quality of my teaching!!

Palestinian women's visit to London 2012

Dear Camden and Abu Dis women's links (in both places)

Here in London, we're really looking forward to the visit of women from Palestine to London. In fact, not just to London - we're going to the New Forest too. I think Nadia (from Abu Dis) and Summereen (from London) are going to make a new blog about the visit...with everyone else's help. We'll put the link to that blog on here. Meanwhile, we're trying to raise money for the visit for example with a meal on 4th Feb and a raffle... And starting to get organised to welcome our new friends.
LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU ALL

*** and hello to our friends not coming on the visit as well - hope to see you soon here or there ***

Marhaba!!

Salaams Dar Assadaqa Women's Group!

My name is Rukaiya and I am part of the new group of CADFA volunteers.

We've been here for 2 weeks now and have been so touched by the kindness and generosity shown to us by the people of Abu Dis and especially everybody at Dar Assadaqa. We feel like Abu Dis is quickly becoming a home away from home and thank you so much for making us feel so welcome :D

And I have to quickly mention  one more thing...the FOOD!! I can't believe how good it is! We've been very lucky to have been invited to Naja and Fathea's houses for dinner and man was it amazing! We're looking forward to having some Palestinian cooking lessons so we can share this wonderful food with our friends and family back home...I know my mum will be very happy if I can come back knowing how to cook!

We look forward to meeting you all soon and working on some good stuff together over the next couple of months x

Masalaama

Rukaiya

Hello. We are in the CADFA offices in Camden and looking forward to meeting you all.