The ceaseless work of volunteers has continued in Hebron, and the new kindergarten is taking shape. The donated building has been undergoing some serious renovations and the derelict building has two clean and rehabilitated rooms, and the outside of the building is bursting with colour.
To see the progress of the building to date, click here
Wondering where your generous donations at our third annual fundraiser have gone to? The kindergarten at Khasam Al Daraj is on its way to opening its doors in during September. Click here to get the latest update on this kindergarten project.
If you couldn’t make it to the Festival on Saturday you can still support our pre-school projects in the South Hebron Hills by making a tax-deductible donation to the Kindergarten Appeal. By donating to this appeal you will be helping support early childhood education facilities for Palestinian communities in the south Hebron hills.
We still have some ceramic pieces and kuffiyehs from Hebron and they will be on sale at the Addison Road Winter Magic Festival on Saturday 30th June – we will be there from approximately 1-5pm.
It’s this Saturday… the Third Annual Hebron Leichhardt Refugee Week Festival of Friendship… only a few sleeps to go!
Come and have a coffee with us, or buy a colourful mug, handmade in Palestine at Hebron Ceramics.
View the Festival Program here, or download an A4 poster or smaller A5 poster (2 to a page).
When: Saturday, 23 June 2012
Where: Leichhardt Town Hall (cnr Marion & Norton Sts, Leichhardt)
Time: Midday to 8pm
We look forward to seeing you for brunch at 12 o’clock lunchtime on Saturday 23 June and hoping you stay all day.
Highlights of the Festival include market stalls, great coffee, delicious food & drink, our new photography exhibition, Steadfastness, a forum investigating the situation in Hebron and the Australian premiere of the award-winning documentary, Roadmap to Apartheid, narrated by Alice Walker. You can admire and buy the uniquely colourful ceramics from Hebron, perfect for your home or that special gift; buy organic olive oil soap or a kuffiyeh, the traditional chequered scarf; or browse our bookstall with hundreds of new and second-hand books of all types, then sit back and relax with a coffee and a snack while our musicians entertain you. Above all, come and have fun!
More details…
13/03/2012
The village of Um al Khair is a small, Bedouin community survives in spite of the high levels of insecurity it faces due the occupation and the harassment of the settlers from the Karmel settlement. Some of the Bedouin tents have received demolition orders and the ongoing theft of land, despite evidence of land ownership by the Palestinian community, make this one of the most vulnerable and impoverished villages in the West Bank. Read more
At the 2011 Leichhardt Friends of Hebron Festival of Friendship you helped us raise over $5000. That money will be used to renovate and extend the Al Huda kindergarten in the South Hebron Hills village of Khashem Al Daraj. Click here to see pictures of the current state of kindergarten and the conditions in the village.
Leichhardt Friends of Hebron are thrilled to announce that the Festival of Friendship, that was held on June 18, raised over $5000 for their two kindergarten projects in the South Hebron Hills. We have just received this report from APHEDA’s Middle East Project Officer, who was able to visit the kindergartens last week:
The Umm al Khair kindergarten is going well. It has 10 children and 2 teachers. There are many more children who wish to attend, however their villages are further away and their parents fear them walking on the main road the 3-4km to the kindergarten. To address this problem, the Villages Group, our partner organisation in Palestine, has sought and gained other funding to operate a minibus in the area. The minibus will transport girls to the local high school, and has agreed to collect the children for the kindergarten as well, lessening parents’ fears for their children.
The Khashem al Daraj kindergarten is in the final stages of construction and is expected to be completed by the end of July, ready for the start of the school year in September. It is being constructed by the same builder who worked on the Um al Khair kindergarten. It is being built on land owned by the village council, so there is no concern about future claims on the land by private landholders. The village has a population of approximately 160 families (average family size is 8). The kindergarten expects an enrolment of 40 children when the school year starts in September and will have 2 teachers. Due to a harsh drought, many families have temporarily moved north out of the village in search of better pastures for their sheep and goat herds. Abu Hamza, the head of the Khashem al Daraj village council, expects an enrolment of 100 children at the kindergarten when families return from the north. The Israeli women’s organization, Machsom Watch (“Checkpoint Watch”), have pledged to fund the teachers’ salaries for two years (one teacher’s salary is NIS1000/month; approx. A$275/month). UNRWA have contributed to the construction costs of the kindergarten. The Villages Group is seeking other international funds to assist with teacher training and infrastructure for the kindergarten (toys, furniture, etc.).
The Villages Group requests that the funding raised in Australia by Friends of Hebron is currently best directed to completing construction of the Khashem al Daraj kindergarten. These funds will purchase tiles etc to finish the interior of the kindergarten. Approximately NIS20,000 (A$5500) is required for this, so the FoH funds will go a long way in achieving this goal.
The report from the Villages Group assures us that the Umm al Khair kindergarten teachers are sufficiently covered by current funds the Villages Group are holding. For this reason, the Villages Group would like to prioritise the Khashem al Daraj kindergarten at this time so that it is completed prior to Ramadan starting in August, and it is then ready for the coming school year in September.
One of the main ways in which Hebron-Leichhardt Festival of Friendship raises money for the kindergartens we support is via the indoor market. As well as our very exciting sale of genuine Palestinian kuffiyehs, this year’s market offers a terrific variety of goods and information, including:
Berberosaharan, a Sydney business selling beautiful handmade Algerian and Moroccan ceramics, metalware, leatherwork and glass. You can get a sneak preview of the kind of items on offer next Saturday from their catalogue.
Permaculture Inner West. Permaculture is an ethical design system drawing together two words: permanent and culture. It was first developed by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, both academics in Tasmania in the late 1970s. They looked at what was happening in agriculture and recognised that it was neither permanent nor related to culture. Permaculture has three core values: earth care, people care, fair share. Aid work is fundamental to us, and so much of our aid work is based overseas – we at Permaculture Inner West have a link with the Marda Permaculture Project in the central West Bank. The Permaculture Inner West stall will be offering seed swaps, seedlings and information on local and international permaculture.
The LFoH AGM will take place on the 2nd of April. We will give a round-up of activities in 2010 and outline our plans for 2011.
We have a guest speaker just returned from Palestine with a talk focussing on Hebron and with recent pictures and stories about the kindergarten built with the money we raised at our Festival of Friendship last year.
friendsofhebronsydney.org.au 