Camden Abu Dis women

Marhaba!!

2012-01-20T08:36:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-05T06:51:00.001-08:00

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

Update on Women's Group at Dar Assadaqa

2011-12-07T12:31:00.000-08:00

Merhaba!

I am currently living and volunteering in Abu Dis, at Dar As Sadaqa and I have the pleasure of having an English conversation skills class with the women of Abu Dis (and Azarya!).

Our classes have been about helping the women in how to express themselves in English, to become more confident in their ability and to improve their vocabulary.

Ultimately, I feel I am the one learning from them as they are all amazing, strong and vibrant women with a lot to say and a huge amount of knowledge about their community, politics and Palestine!

During our first lesson we practiced basic conversation, how to ask and respond to questions and syntax. I also taught them what 'smothered' meant in terms of men and their mothers- apparently it is an issue here!

Our next lesson saw more women attending and we talked about opinions are expressing our thoughts. The lesson touched on gender relations in the local community and of course, the occupation and how they feel living under it for so long.

It was a really interesting session, aimed at getting the women confident in talking about what THEY think, not simply facts and observations, in another language...and they did far better than I would in Arabic!

The third session was about memories and past experiences. It was a really lovely session and listening to their childhood memories was a real honour. It was also tragic and beautiful that all these memories are tainted by the occupation. Whether it was about a mother visiting her sister who lost her family in 1967, or about playing in fields that can now not be reached....

We also discussed the big political story of the moment- the prisoner swap between Hamas and Israel. We talked about the female prisoners and those who had chosen to be exiled in Qatar instead of Gaza, raising an interest discussion about Gaza and the importance of staying in your homeland or having a family life.

Our fourth class was about telling stories, verbally...So how to engage people, exaggeration, including imagery and the story we wrote collectively was about a refugee and the conversation turned to refugeehood. We discussed how people see refugees and I talked about refugees in the UK. We also read from the 'Stories from our mothers' CADFA book, as two of the group had written for it and I got some more background into the stories they had shared about tragic occurrences in Abu Dis due to the occupation.

Our fifth class touched upon traditions and we discussed weddings. I was given a very thorough breakdown of wedding customs, clothes and food. It was very beautiful to listen to and imagine, and we also discussed South Asian wedding customs and how things had changed over time in Palestine. It was nice to hear about Palestinian culture- not just politics but the everyday rituals and traditions that make life rich and to appreciate how Palestinians have worked to preserve their cultural heritage, in which women play a key role.

Our sixth class looked at the environment around us. We discussed Abu Dis, the settlement of Maale Adummim, which looms over the town and The Wall. It was difficult to get literal descriptions of The Wall or the settlement because they are such emotive topics- everything about them touches on the lives of people here- how they look is part of that. The women spoke of the settlements stealing land and resources and what The Wall has denied them- freedom of movement and Jerusalem. I can go to Jerusalem but green ID card holders in Abu Dis cannot. It is mind boggling!

The next class saw only the one student as it was before Eid! But it was a quality lesson! We discussed various topics, from what it means to resist to what it means to be a minority. The following classes have explored myths and legends- leading on to a discussion of the 'Ghule', a monster used to scare children into behaving well and also writing down recipes for a booklet we want to produce to share Palestinian recipes and express how important food is in Palestinian culture!

The women I speak to in Abu Dis dispel much of the stereotypes you hear about women in Palestine. These women are not shadows, they are active in the struggle....as mothers, sisters, teachers, workers....They have important things to say and voices that should be heard, and I am very grateful CADFA sent me here to listen!

So that is a round-up of our classes so far! We are currently working on a 'Hello Camden!' letter for women's link and hopefully some photos to follow!

Merhaba!

I am the teacher of the women's English conversation classes at Dar Assadqa! We meet twice a week to practice speaking English and talk about different issues. Below is a letter the women wrote to say hello to you and get some communication going!

Dear Camden Women's Link,

Hello and welcome to you! We are all part of the women's group and activities at Dar As Sadaqa in Abu Dis. The women who attend are from Abu Dis, but also Bethany and Sawahar.

Abu Dis has been under occupation since 1967 and the separation wall prevents us from reaching Jerusalem and travelling freely, even though Jerusalem is ten minutes away! The occupation affects our lives in every way and it is something we talk about and discuss in our English conversation classes.

The women's group at Dar AsSadaqa does many things besides the English classes. We also learn and teach traditional handicrafts, write articles and stories for CamdenAbuDis about life in Abu Dis and have offered mental health advice and health services support. We learn about nutrition and healthy lifestyles, we do gardening together, we cook for the community, visit the families of political prisoners and support and attend demonstrations for human rights in Abu Dis.

There are approximately 25 women who take part in activities and we will also be offering civil defence training soon! We are part of the women's group because we enjoy these activities, like learning new skills and also to teaching others.

We would like to increase communication with the women's link in Camden and we have some questions for you!

· Why do you think the UK did not vote for Palestinian statehood in the UN?

· How can we communicate more?

· What would you like to know about us and Abu Dis?

New draft of WHAT NEXT (following the video conference)

2010-06-06T09:53:00.000-07:00

Please send comments quickly to contact@camdenabudis.net - Thanks

------------------------------------------------------------

We have found how much we share as Palestinian and British women

We want to maintain contact as individual women and women’s organisations

We want to organise further women’s visits and develop a future programme of shared activities between the two countries

We want to go on collecting women’s stories as this is important for the future. These are stories of our mothers, stories of our own generation and stories that affect our daughters

We want to challenge the assumptions built into the Balfour Declaration: it isn’t up to Britain to decide what happens in Palestine

We want to make British people aware of their country’s responsibility for what has happened in Palestine through leaflets, workshops, teaching packs

We want to work to heal the pain caused by the Balfour Declaration and Britain’s actions in Palestine which led to the immense suffering of Palestinian women under the Israeli occupation

We want to work together to raise the awareness of British women more widely about the human rights issues faced by Palestinian women

We want to promote the idea of twinning and friendship links between different places in Palestine and Britain and strengthen the links that there already are, so that people from both places can work together in an equal way to promote human rights for women and for everybody.

Video conference

2010-06-05T12:44:00.000-07:00

A very big thank you to everyone who took part in the conference today. It was very special for us - the first time we had done anything like it - and it was brilliant to talk together about the Stories from our Mothers project and how it had gone, and about the future... There were lots of good ideas and here in Camden we hope that this is really NOT THE END (as we said in the book).

We hope we can put the good ideas into practice, and also that we can meet again in this way some time.

I thought you might like to see some pictures taken in London - Nandita

مشروع قصص من أمهاتنا

2010-05-23T02:26:00.000-07:00

(لقاء بين النساء من فلسطين وبريطانيا)
--------------------------------------------------
تعلن جمعية صداقة كامدن ابوديس ودار الصداقة في أبوديس بالتعاون مع مركز إنسان لدراسات الجندر في جامعة القدس عن انعقاد المؤتمر الختامي لمشروع قصص من أمهاتنا الذي نفذته جمعية صداقة كامدن أبوديس بتمويل من مؤسسة آنا ليندا.
سيتخلل جلسات المؤتمر لقاء عبر الأقمار الصناعية بتقنية (الفيديو كونفيرنس) بين كامدن لندن وجامعة القدس أبوديس.

وسيتم عرض فيلم خاص تم إنتاجه عن مشروع قصص من أمهاتنا
واستعراض بعض الموضوعات والقصص التي تضمنها كتاب قصص من أمهاتنا الذي صدر حديثاً

وذلك يوم السبت الموافق الخامس من حزيران من الساعة الثانية عشرة وحتى الثالث من بعد الظهر
في جامعة القدس أبوديس.
لمزيد من المعلومات والمشاركة الرجاء التواصل معنا على الايمالات المرفقة
abudis@camdenabudis.net
fadwal@art.alquds.edu
contact@camdenabudis.net
www.camdenabudis.net/stories.htm

2010-03-15T12:52:00.000-07:00

From Najah... The best thing

2010-03-15T12:51:00.000-07:00

ان احسن ما تقدمه لعدوك المسامحه
ولصديقك قلبك الطيب
ولابيك الاحترام
ولوالدتك السلوك الذى يجعلها تعتز بك
لنفسك الاحترام
ولجميع الناس المحبة
1the best king to your enemy is forgiveness
2the best thing to give to to friend lovely heart
3the best thing to give a child a good example
4the best thing to give to your father your respect
5the best thing to give to your mother conduct that will make her proud of you
6 the best thing to give to your self respect and gove for all people

Women's visit to London

2010-03-15T03:44:00.000-07:00

http://www.camdenabudis.net/stories.html

From Dalia...

لم تتسنى لي الفرصه بأن اشكركم عل جهودكم
سعيده لاني عدت الى الاهل

ولكنني كنت اسعد حين كنت بينكم
حقا شكرا جزيلا جميعا
وافتخر بانني اعرفكم
واني كنت عندكم
ومثلت طلاب فلسطين وتعرفت على اصدقاء جميلن هناك

فشكرا لكم دايما

بتوفيق دايما
داليا

Letter from Dar Assadaqa women

2010-01-05T02:52:00.000-08:00

Happy new year to the people of Camden. The community of women in Abu Dis thank the community of women in Camden. For their support and sharing what happened in Gaza early last year.

Over the past year we have attended many presentations about women’s health, and we wrote the ‘voice of women’ magazine which you received in Camden. We now want to begin work on a new magazine.

The women here received the ‘Stories from our mothers’ group from London in November and we traveled around Palestine together. We would like to share our stories with them all.

The womens’ committee also visited Al-Haq centre in Ramallah last year and we visited the trade unions in Jericho and Bethany with friends from Camden. We also shared the children’s camp in the Dar Assadaqa centre in the summer.

The new sewing machine has now arrived for us and we thank you for your support here. We want to start sewing classes soon.

With best wishes,
The women’s comittee

ماساة شعب

2009-12-30T05:17:00.000-08:00

The people’s tragedy

I see a beautiful view when I wake up in the early morning. When the sun rises, I see the surface of the Dead Sea, gleaming in the dawn. And when the sun rises opposite the settlement of Maale Adumim – an Israeli settlement – I see it like a grabbing crocodile.

And as I watch the sun rise, I see a promise of a better tomorrow, and when I see the Wall, winding around us, I feel an acute pain, and I liken our life to a wrapped-around tin of sardines, and I think of the future of the young people. Will they find a tomorrow without tragedy and pain and siege, and will they be depressed?

And this is the tragedy of the Palestinian people. Although I live in a place with a stunning view, the Wall spoils its beauty.

Can you see how this is painful?
Can you see the pain that the Palestinian people live in?
What tomorrow will our children find???????

ماساة شعب
استيقظ فى الصباح الباكر حتى ارى شروق الشمس فارى منظرا جميل عند الشروق ارى سطح البحر الميت وهو يلمع مع الشروق والشمس تشرق من خلف مستوطنة معالى ادوميم وهى مستوطنة اسرائيلية انظر اليها فارى منظرها كالتمساح
وانا انظر الى شروق الشمس اقول قد يكون غدا افضل واعدلكن عندما التفت من حولى اجد الجدار يلتف من حولنا اشعر بالم شديد واشبه حياتنا بعلبة السردين وافكر فى مستقبل الشباب ماذا سيجدون غدا غير الماساة والعذاب والحصار وسوف يحبطون وهذه ماساة الشعب الفلسطينى بالرغم من انى اسكن فى مكان جميل ومنظر باهر لكن الجدار يشوهه
ارايتم كم هذا مؤلم ؟
ارايتم العذاب الذى يعيشه الشعب الفلسطينى ؟
ماذا سيجد اطفالنا غدا؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟
حكمت حمدان

New sewing machine at Dar Assadaqa

2009-12-29T07:52:00.000-08:00

Women visitors Nov 09

2009-12-13T01:45:00.000-08:00

Stories from our Mothers visit to Abu Dis and Palestine

2009-12-13T01:38:00.000-08:00

Dear friends in Abu Dis

The women's visit to Abu Dis was BRILLIANT
Thank you all for all your welcome and support and for all the activities we did together
It has really built a friendship between lots of women in Britain and Palestine and we hope to stay in touch... there are already lots of photos, a film being made, a blog being made (very slowly, sorry, although some of the reports are ready)
and the book...

Here is the page from the website about the project: you will find lots of things there including photos

http://www.camdenabudis.net/stories.html

Thank you to all of you who applied to join the visit in March to Britain. We wish you could all come. We will just have to do it again and again ...

All best wishes to all of you
from the Camden women.

Notice of women's activities at Dar Assadaqa

2009-12-13T01:26:00.000-08:00

نشاطات اللجنة النسويةالسبت 12-12-2009 1. محاضرة طبية فى دار الصداقة بالتعاون الاغاثة الطبية ومركز تنظيم وحماية الاسرة الفلسطينية حضرها نحو 20 سيدة من ابوديس والعيزرية حول وسائل الكشف المبكرة عن مرض سرطان الثدي، وقد تقرر بعد المحاضرة إقامة ورشات عمل اسبوعية حول نفس الموضوع باشراف الاغائة الطبية الفلسطينية وهذة دعوة عامة لجميع النساء للمشاركة في فعاليات ورش العمل كل يوم سبت الساعة العاشرة صباحاً.2. بدأت في دار الصداقة ورشات عمل حول سن المراهقة وذلك بالتعاون مع مركز المرفأ للصحة النفسية حيث عقد اللقاء الاول يوم السبت الساعة 12 باشراف الدكتورة هدى حسن من المرفأ ومن المقرر ان يكون هناك لقاء اسبوعي بحضور اولياء أمور وطلبه من المدارس

Learning Arabic

2009-09-30T14:51:00.000-07:00

(this is not a picture of learning Arabic!!)

MERHABA

KEEF KUM?

The women who are coming to Palestine have started to learn Arabic..

The programme is nearly ready...

The air tickets are bought...

We are really looking forward ...

Women's visit update

2009-09-18T03:06:00.000-07:00

We have had lots of applications to join the women's visit to Palestine in November. 12 women are coming and they will have their first meeting next Tuesday. It is sounding very exciting and the women in London send their greetings to their friends in Palestine...
LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING YOU!!

2009-09-15T16:43:00.000-07:00

5th September - Dar Assadaqa women's meeting

2009-09-14T03:38:00.000-07:00

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
السبت 5-9-2009
الساعة -11
المقر :دار الصداقة
اللجنة النسوية
اجتمعت اللجنة النسوية وتمت مناقشة المواضيع التالية:
زيارة الوفد النسوى القادم من لندن فى اواخر شهر تشرين اول القادم الى ابوديس والفعاليات التى سيتم انجازها خلال الزيارة
وضع برنامج للعام القادم كالاتى:
متابعة الدورات الصحية لمرضى السكرى -والصحة النفسية -الزواج المبكر -وسن المراهقةوالصحة الانجابية
دورة انتاجية للاشغال اليدوية
شراء ماكنات الخياطة والتحضير لدورة مبتداة للخياطة
دورة كمبيوتر مبتداة
التحضير لدورة انجليزى جديدة عند حضور المتطوعة الجديدة بعد شهر رمضان
التحضير لمجلة "صوت المراة فى عدد جديد
ابلاغ النساء عن امكانية كتابة ما عندهن من قصص او سمعنها من احد
تطلب اللجنة النسوية من القائمين على دار الصداقة امكانية المساعدة على تجديد بعض الاشياء فى المبنى من الداخل
الترتيب لرحلة ترفيهية للنساء والاطفال بين العيدين
تم الا تفاق على ذالك وبموافقة عضوات اللجنة اللاتى حضرن الاجتماع وهن -:
نجاح عياد-فتحية ابوهلال-امنة الخطيب -سارة شقيرات -ميسون ابو هلال- كفاية حديدون-وتغيبت كل من :فاطمة شقيرات-وصفية
عن اللجنة النسوية نجاح عياد

Kul aam w intum bekhair

2009-08-24T23:16:00.000-07:00

New women's project

2009-08-08T17:29:00.000-07:00

Dear all of you in the Dar Assadaqa women's group

Thanks very much for the letter Sarah sent us from you all.

We have had a meeting of the women's links group here in Camden (London) and we are very pleased that we have got some funding from the Anna Lindh project for the women's project we were hoping for.

These are the main parts of the project:

* women's visit from Camden to Abu Dis in early November
* women's visit from Abu Dis to Camden in March
* making a book together to be finished in May.

* We need to plan it together, very soon - There is so much to do now! And I hope to speak to you in the next few days. Maybe you can let us know when you meet so we can talk on Skype?

All best wishes

Nandita on behalf of the women's links group in Camden.

Camden teachers' visit

2009-04-20T14:51:00.000-07:00

Dear all of you
Now Annika is back in London... Will you see this blog? HOPE SO...
Now I really miss you... I was in Abu Dis with the teachers' visit (see below) and hardly saw any of you... Wewere so busy... HOPE TO SEE YOU SOOON...... Nandita

The Dar Assadaqa banner

2009-03-29T00:23:00.000-07:00

We are in the process of making a banner for Dar Assadaqa. Here it is!

Dear all of you

2009-03-28T12:09:00.001-07:00

THANK YOU

for the lovely pictures and the information about your women's day! It is so nice to see it.

Here we are all still very busy as we have had lots of events and lots of visitors... Our next women's links meeting will be next term (*after the holiday we have in April)

We will ask Annika to tell us about her time in Abu Dis with you...

My nice news is I AM COMING TO SEE YOU ALL! Really looking forward!

Love to you all

Nandita

International Women's Day 2009

2009-03-09T06:36:00.000-07:00

On the 7th March we celebrated International Women's Day at Dar Assadaqa. We invited many women from Abu Dis. We brought many sweets but the children ate most of them. Naja welcomed everyone and talked to them about Dar Assadaqa in Arabic and Fatheya translated into English. Women came from all over the world including Australia, Sweden, England many from Abu Dis.

Marah sang a song about Palestine and the children performed a short play about a lady whose finger was bitten by a dog belonging to the General. After that we connected on the internet with the women in London. We exchanged messages and we thanked them for raising money for our garden.

At the same time other people were planting trees and plants in the garden.

Here are some members of the Women's Committee and Annika.

Here is Ne'ma wearing a traditional Palestinian dress that she made by herself.

Fatheya and Sara are planting.

Women's visit 2009

2009-03-08T14:16:00.000-07:00

Hurray! 11 women from Palestine arrived last Wednesday in London... including Hiba from Abu Dis and Rawan and Saeda from the Al Quds University in Abu Dis.... It is brilliant having them here.... Here is a picture of some of the people at a welcome meal on the day they came.

After that, the women started travelling all over the country, doing talks about Palestine. Rawan and Hiba and Sirien (from Toubas) and Ghada (from Jenin) talked at our International Women's Day event.

We were very happy to talk to you on the Messenger but a

pity we couldn't see you.... PLEASE PLEASE WRITE TO US!

And... thank you for the magazine!

Love from Nandita

Abu Dis musicians have arrived in London

2009-02-16T15:50:00.000-08:00

... and some of the women's group were at a welcome meal at Katy's in their honour.

We talked about the blog and decided to send you another message. We are still hoping you will write back - in English or in Arabic, no problem...

*Hope you are all well*

love from Nandita, Lucinda, Katy and Cristina

From the Camden women's links group

2009-02-05T14:41:00.000-08:00

Dear women at Dar Assadaqa

We had a meeting today and we were very pleased to hear about what you are doing.

We looked at your list of things that you are doing. We talked about sewing and computers. It is interesting. Everyone at our meeting has a sewing machine but no-one uses them any more.... All of us used to make clothes but it is cheaper to buy clothes now. What do you want to make?

But all of us think computers are very useful... We all use them a lot.

Anyway we want to keep in touch with you all.

We are looking forward to the Palestinian women's visit and we are planning some great events. We are having an International Women's Day event on 7th March at the Calthorpe Centre and we would like to talk to you that day on Skype at 2pm our time - that is 4pm your time.

What do you think? Is that a good time for you? Will that work?

We are looking forward to hearing from you

Love from Lucinda, Katy, Nandita (and Cristina, Margot, Lucy and Val who couldn't come today)

Abu Dis women friends in London!

2009-02-05T04:24:00.000-08:00

Dear all of you (and other friends there)

We miss you in London! Please write to us here, in English or Arabic

and write soon!

X Nandita