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.
Here is an update from Breaking the Silence on the situation in the South Hebron Hills. Classified as “Area C” (Full Israeli Control) during the Oslo Accords, the South Hebron Hills host some of the worst instances of Israel’s occupation.
friendsofhebronsydney.org.au 