Projects
Menders Summer Camp 2006: "Leading The Way Together"

From July 23 – July 27th, seventy-eight young Palestinian boys
and girls came together from all over the country for an
active nonviolence summer camp. The camp was held in the
peaceful hilltop school, Talitha Kumi, which overlooks Beit Jala
and Bethlehem to the East and the hills of Hussan and Battir to
the West. Most of the children had hardly ever left their local
towns before due to the dangers and difficulties of movement
for Palestinians, therefore most of them had never had the
chance to get to know children from other areas. Many of the
children had never participated in joint activities with boys
and girls. Yet they not only overcame all their prejudices and
inhibitions, but became fast friends in a truly united national
group of Menders.

The camp was funded through a grant from the Naseej project
of the Save the Children Foundation as a continuation of a
grant from the Ford Foundation to develop our Menders
throughout the West Bank in a project called “Leading the
Way Together”. It was coordinated by Osama Abu Karsh, from
MEND’s group in Ramallah and by Yakuob Rujoub from MEND’s
Izariyyah group. They started by bringing the children together
to Ramallah for a preliminary meeting to hear what they
would like included in the camp and to have them all sign a
pledge of commitment to active nonviolence.
The children came from Jenin, Qalqilya, Tul Karem, Ramallah,
Jerusalem, Jericho, Izariyya and Hebron, some of them
traveling for fourteen hours to reach the camp. Sadly, the
group could not come from Nablus as it was under military
closure and Gaza was also not possible. The camp programme
focused on drama and music and media, both in themselves
and in relation to active nonviolence, which was also of
course an integral part of the training programme. The
children were divided into three groups and every evening
one group entertained the others with performances based
on their learning in the camp. These included skits on violence
against women and violence in schools as well as songs (some
about the war in Lebanon, which was going on at the time)
and dances. Children who had been trained in participatory
video were filming as much as possible throughout the camp
and their work is currently being edited into a short film. They
also learned about the print media and have almost
completed a newsletter about the camp. In their enthusiasm
for their new found connections with each other they have
set up a yahoo group and keep in touch constantly via email.
Now they are preparing to meet with their friends and
schoolmates in their home towns and share with them their
inspiring experience of getting to know their fellow
Palestinians and of learning together as boys and girls in a safe
and respectful atmosphere. They will distribute the newsletter,
talk on the radio, show the film and also be organizing some
national nonviolence activities as they develop into a
national youth movement for nonviolence.