Mothers' Worries

Women meeting at Dar Assadaqa for English conversation classes. Before the class began, one lady wanted to share some news with us.

She had just found out that her son’s prison detention has been extended. He was arrested 3 months ago, without charge or trial, and was due to be released in two days time. She will now have to wait another 3 months before he comes home. The most worrying thing for her is that her son has a severe skin condition and is on prescription medication. In prison he is denied this medicine and is in increasing pain. This is also not the first time he has been in prison. In 2010, when he was 17, he was behind bars for 24 months. She is clearly a strong women, but revealed to us that she feels desperately worried that when she smiles, people forget the pain she is carrying. Another lady then added that her friend’s 16 year old son was taken away at 3am a few days ago. She has a 20 year old son of her own and said that, every night, she lies awake until the early hours of the morning, worrying that the army might break in and take him away.

The women in the group have all had their families affected by 'Administrative Detention' - being held in prison without charge or trial. The women gave their heart-felt support to this lady. They requested to move on to a different topic for the class to take their mind off it.

 

Images from the last women's visit

 This visit was in May 2014 - women from Palestine visiting women in London. See the blog pwv2014.blogspot.co.uk

Autumn Introductions at Dar Assadaqa

I met with three women and a local volunteer yesterday morning for an introductory session and we look forward to the weeks to come.

It has been four months now since the group last met for conversational English and so played some simple games to get our brains thinking in English. We started with the shopping list game – 'I went to the shop and bought...'
This threw up some new vocabulary for the ladies which was useful.
We then played a drawing game which required a shift in mindset into creative mode! The women seemed to really enjoy it. The game is like consequences but includes drawing and well as writing. I used this to show how stories evolve when individuals' interpretations are added and that this is what makes our own stories personal to us. This game also demonstrated that a lot can be communicated with simple, single words when combined with visuals, body language and gestures. From this, I encouraged the women to try to express themselves in English when we are together, working with the words that they do know. They have agreed to refrain from relying on an Arabic tranlsator and they discovered that a lot can be said with very few words!

We discussed that communicating with each other during our sessions is more than just learning to speak English, but it is about sharing experiences and connecting with each other. When asking each other questions about out lives, we passed a ball of wool between us, each holding on to a point on the thread, and by the end we were all connected by a web of wool. This demonstrated how we were becoming connected through communication. It was a good chance to practice speaking English and to get to know a bit about each other.

The session was a great success and we hope to meet weekly. We aim to improve conversational English, develop relationships and learn more about topics of interest. The women have chosen to talk about food next week.

Women's magazine

It's a long time since there has been anything on this blog! Not sure why when so much has happened - women's  links in Camden and Abu Dis, some good activities in Dar Assadaqa, women's visits in March 2013 and 2014... Hope for more on here next year!

Anyway HERE IS THE NEWSPAPER from the 2014 women's visit.

http://camdenabudis.net/docs/women%20in%20action%20magazine.pdf

Tell us what you think about it.

And the blogs from our women's visits 2012, 2013 and 2014 can be found at

pwv2012.blogspot.co.uk

pwv2013.blogspot.co.uk

 
pwv2014.blogspot.co.uk