Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Your MECA Dollars Palestinian Kids Write, Illustrate and Tell their Stories
news
Summer 2013
at Work
MECA provided funds for the Palestine Writing Workshops two-part training in February and March for fifteen youth from Jalazone Refugee Camp. The participants learned to create original storyboards, large illustrated boards of their own stories. Each Friday and Saturday, they came together at the camps youth center to work with a local storyteller/writer and illustrator. The children discussed identity and relationships to family, community and the world. They were encouraged to find their own voice and to use it through writing and illustration. Seven The best moment during the workshop was when we wrote about kids completed beautiful storyboards that will be used for sto- our name, who named us and everything about our name. rytelling activities in different communities. The children also had training to help them present their own storyboards in front of audiences of children and adults. In May, four of the kids read their stories aloud at the Festival of Stories and Strange
MECAs Maia project has now installed thirtynine water purification and desalination units, providing safe, clean drinking water for more than 32,000 children at kindergartens, elementary and middle schools throughout Gaza. In the spring, trained youth volunteers from Save the Youth Future Society (SYFS) led the Maia Education Project, a new component of the Maia Project to increase Gaza students understanding of the water crisis and its root causes, the science of how the Maia units purify and desalinate their drinking water, and to encourage responsibility for keeping the units from being damaged.
The hardest moment was when the teacher asked us to draw or write a complicated story and we couldnt do it. But then she would come and show us how to do it.
Creatures, which featured a large variety of art activities from puppet-making to face-painting, and showcased the storyboards from the children in Jalazone. MECA Program Director Josie Shields-Stromsness attended the festival and reported, I was so impressed as they confidently read out their stories with emotion and dramatic pauses, keeping us all engaged!
SYFS has been working with Emergency Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (EWASH) and its Thirsting for Justice Campaign for two years, so most of the youth instructors already have good grounding in the water crisis in Gaza, Palestinian water rights and Israeli violations. After an initial training about how to work effectively with children, the youth set out to all thirty-two elementary and middle schools with Maia units. (There are just 16 units but because of the lack of schools in Gaza, all of these locations have two shifts of students, so are really two schools in one.) They led interactive workshops for 1,497 students and 173 teachers. Your MECA Dollars at Work, Continued on page 3
Your MECA Dollars at Work, Continued from page 1 The youth leaders designed posters and banners about the water situation in Gaza and the Maia Project to be hung in each school building and printed in school bulletins. Together with the students, they developed flyers that were distributed to students who did not have a chance to join the workshops. They made murals with the children about the Maia Project at each school, located centrally so all the students will see them. The education campaign concluded with festivals for children in eight locations to reinforce the main messages of the project; to celebrate their collective efforts to take care of the Maia water units in their schools; and learning and educating others about the importance of clean water to their health and their rights.
by Barbara Lubin
The youth leaders organize games to teach the importance of conserving water.
A student gets a fresh zaatar (thyme) pie from the kitchen CREDIT: Josie Shields-Stromsness
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65 Years of Nakba
Generation after generation, Palestinians are still holding the keys to their original homes to return to their land in Palestine. This return is not simply a right bestowed upon Palestinians by the international community. Far more than this, return for Palestinians is an inherent part of their identity, freedom and dignity. Each year, the laws and unwritten policies of the Israeli occupation make return more difficult for the many Palestinians living beyond its borders. The United States turns a blind eye to the growing number of its own citizens, Palestinian and otherwise, who have been denied entry to Palestine. Denying Palestinians and others access to the land of historic Palestine highlights the incredible fear doctrine that has been constructed within Israeli society; Israeli leaders fully understand that recognizing this right of return means the beginning of the end of the settler-colonial state. During these 65 years of occupation, we have witnessed the return of many refugeeswith the support of the international communityto their homes in Bosnia, East Timor, Rwanda and Sierra Leone. Meanwhile, the Palestinian refugee population is ever increasing within the camps of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and in the diaspora. Palestinians in the camps spend their entire lives as refugees, often only minutes away from their original villages and homes, with walls and checkpoints forever partitioning them from the reality of return. Now, with the current escalation of violence in the region, Palestinian refugees in Syria have become refugees once more. Absent a homeland to which they can return, the issues of landlessness, violence and militarized borders have become more pressing than ever. Women and children are among the tens of thousands of refugees who now live in camps in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. The vulnerability of these communities is escalating. The Arab uprisings that began in 2011 have changed the political landscape of the Middle East and opened the door for many new possibilities. Shedding the fear of decades-long repression, the people have united to challenge and overthrow the dictatorial regimes of the Arab world. Soon after the end of Mubaraks rule in Egypt and Ben Alis rule in Tunisia, in a moment inspired by the uprisings of their Arab neighbors, the image of return for Palestinians transformed into an imminent possibility. In May 2011, thousands of Palestinian refugees and others marched to the borders of Palestine from Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. Some
Ziad Abbas, MECA Manager of Cross-Cultural Programs shows visitors and old UN house in Dheisheh Refugee Camp where he grew up. CREDIT: Pablo Pitcher
The question of Palestine is the key to change in the Middle East and the right of return is the simple answer to this question. Until return is realized, liberation for the land and its people can never be achieved. For this, MECA will continue its work in hopes of making the dream of return a reality for all Palestinians.
Students attend a makeshift school in Dheisheh Refugee Camp, 1961. CREDIT: UNRWA
MECA Celebrates 25th Anniversary with Angela Davis, Noam Chomsky, Holly Near
By Penny Rosenwasser,
MECA Events Coordinator
Palestinians were able to cross the border and visit their familys homes for the first time in their lives, risking everything along the way. This action gave Palestinians a glimpse of freedom, as well as a more complete picture of the obstacles that obstruct the path to their homeland. Their march homeward symbolized a people suspended somewhere between time and space, living on the margins of society and within the borders of their dreams. Their march home lifted the spirits of many around the world, especially Palestinians, for it was one of the first moments since 1948 when return became a reality; it became a palpable movement rather than an abstract notion. On the other hand, the Arab movements and the Palestinian march of return in 2011 have created much cause for concern within Israel. The repressive Arab regimes were long- standing allies of Israel, allies that did not challenge its brutal and discriminatory actions and policies towards Palestinians. As these regimes fell, Israel began to fortify and deepen its borders with Egypt, Jordan and Syria, creating more distance between itself and the region. With the movements in the Arab world still in formation, the future of the Middle East looks uncertain and unstable. Moving forward to tangible change is a process that will take years. However, return for Palestinians is among the changes that will have to take place to ensure freedom for all the people of the region The role of western powers, particularly the United States and the state of Israel, will also have to be confronted and redefined if any progress is to be made. The minority of the world cannot go on living at the expense of the majority. Security and superiority cannot supersede justice and dignity. Despite Israels best efforts at dividing and fragmenting the Palestinian population, for 65 years the Palestinian people have maintained their struggle for return to their original homes and villages. Through MECAs work in the refugee camps, we are continually inspired by the spirit of the new generation and their determination to end the Israeli occupation of their lands.
What a huge honor to have magnificent freedom fighter, educator, Critical Resistance Co-Founder and author Angela Davis speak at a benefit for MECA on Palestinian Prisoners Day, April 17, 2013. The nearly sold-out crowd of 620+ was rivetedfirst by Ziad Abbas, Palestinian refugee and journalist (and MECA staff) speaking from personal experience about Palestinian political prisonersand then by Professor Davis herself. Angela and Ziad both spoke movingly about the connections between political prisoners in the U.S. and in Palestine. Angela talked about the eight million dollars per day in U.S. military aid to Israel that could provide health care, education and meet other urgent needs. She recounted meeting teenagers who had been arrested on her recent trip to Palestine and about how Palestinian childrens acts of resistance, including throwing stones, are what children are supposed to do in order to avoid internalizing a sense of inferiority that Israel would like to see.
Angela Davis speaking to a sold-out crowd at a MECA event on Palestinian Prisoners Day, April 17, 2013. CREDIT: Jay Finneburg
Just weeks later, 2200 people came to MECAs anniversary event with international hero and activist/intellectual Noam Chomsky, accompanied by Holly Near and her Peace Becomes You Band at Oaklands historic Paramount Theatre. After MECAs 25th anniversary video, highlighting our programs in Palestine, Holly and band (Gina Breedlove, Jan Martinelli, David Rokeach and Julie Wolf) performed an electrifying set, including the soulful Peace Becomes You. MECA Board Chair and former Berkeley Mayor Gus Newport surprised MECA Director Barbara Lubin with flowers and a plaque honoring her intrepid and inspiring leadership for 25 years. All this paved the way for 90 minutes of non-stop eloquence from Professor Chomsky, speaking on Palestinian Hopes, Regional Turmoil covering Palestine and the U.S. role, and laced throughout with references to the struggle for justice worldwide. Huge thanks to our expansive Bay Area audience for supporting these two events, as well as to our volunteers who help make it all happenwe simply couldnt do it without you!
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MECA friend and Founding Advisor Noam Chomsky engages 2,200 in Oakland on May 8th to honor MECAs 25th anniversary. CREDIT: S. Smith Patrick
In response to the last question from the audience, Whats your favorite joke? Chomsky replied My favorite joke is that the U.S. is an even-handed broker.
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Cooking for FoMEPs Palestinian Culture Night fundraiser. The group has raised more than $8,000 for MECAs Maia Project to install water purification units in two Gaza kindergartens. CREDIT: Gretchen Newlin
Light-weight, durable, stylish brella bags are good for the environment and children in Gaza. You can get yours at www.carstuffnyc.com. CREDIT: Martina Grilec
Learn about 25 years of resistance and humanitarian work conducted by the Middle East Childrens Alliance. A video by S. Smith Patrick http://www.mecaforpeace.org/news/mecas-25th-anniversary-video
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Coming up in the Fall! THE GAZA KITCHEN Cookbook reception, plus a cooking class, with Laila El-Haddad a MECA partnership with Joining Hands stay tuned!