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.

Update on Women's Group at Dar Assadaqa

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?