Karama.org

Childrens Project

Creative workshops

The idea is to work together with the children to make and decorate small match boxes. In the boxes we will put flower seeds typical for this region. We will sell the boxes to friends of Karama and the money will go towards material needed for future workshops.

The boxes were donated and this workshop would not have been possible without the following:

All the Swedish shops in the town of Norrkoping which donated the majority of these materials
Freida Larson who coordinated this workshop and sold these in Sweden

It is greatly appreciated and especially so by the children, who get to dive in to the world of silk paper, glitter, gems and colour. Whilst at the same time feeling solidarity to others, and actively taking part in Karama’s development.

Education and leadership program for Karama children

In Deheishe refugee camp the possibilities and opportunities are mostly intended for the children who are doing well in school and get high grades. This means that the students with lower grades have fewer or no chances to take part in activities. This is why Karama decided to make a project for these students.

One part of the programme was, together with the local school teachers, to identify students with the lowest grades. During a period of two years Karama offered lessons to assist them with their studies, this helped the students to receive higher grades. One of the greatest outcomes was that some of the students obtained the highest grades in the classroom.

Another stage of the programme was to assist 15 children in attending school. There are many reasons for the children not to attend school, an example of this was one child had to quit school in order to earn money for his family due to his father being imprisoned. Karama helped these children to go to school by paying them a monthly salary to learn instead of working in the streets. In the year 2005, 6 of these children took the high school exams. We wish them the best of luck!

The third stage of the programme was aimed at both boys and girls with social or academic issues. Some of the youth are affected by the Israeli occupation of Palestine, others come from uneducated or illiterate families, and a few lost one or both of their parents. These circumstances can lead them to abrasive and violent behaviour in school; this makes instruction difficult for the teachers and disrupts other students.

In cooperation with one school Karama chose the most aggressive teenagers between the ages of 13 and 15 years. The school warned Karama saying that it would be impossible to work with these teenagers, but Karama took the challenge and arranged a programme. The programme was arranged by two social workers who made eight workshops in one month. They held lectures about leadership, how to trust others and let others trust you. The teenagers were trained to lead workshops with small children. At the end they made a big festival which was led by the teenagers with help from the social workers. They made activities and games for around 180 small children. After the workshops and the festival the social workers kept in touch with the teenagers and held one meeting each week. At school the teachers became very satisfied with the behaviour of these previously noisy and violent teenagers. The same programme was completed in the girls' school and had even better results!

The right to play

This programme was held in two different kindergartens. At the first one 60 children participated and two social workers from Karama were in charge. The children were all around the age of five and came from families who were struggling financially. They were offered a chance to have fun and participate in activities and games. Karama arranged performances with clowns, the children made their own hats and there was also live music. It was a day with fun activities for the small children of Deheishe. At the end Karama gave prizes to all the children and offered them food for their families.

Another day involved 236 children from kindergarten. Karama hired a special group that performed for kids with clowns. The children had fun expressing themselves through drawing and painting. They were also given the chance to sing and the day was packed with games and competitions.

Computing

Karama provides help to one hundred boys and girls in the computer sciences by offering:

Elementary courses for boys and girls.
Internet for all.

First computer courses

Karama offers many computer courses for two months to the members of the organisation.
Currently the organisation provides the following courses taught by Rabab Marwan:

A course for boys and girls (10 -13 years old) 4 hours a week.
A course for 13 -15 years old students 5 hours a week.
A course for women to help them to know how to use the computer (three hours a week).

English language

Karama educational project stresses English to establish and develop the pupils' skills. This encourages the children to improve their abilities with the volunteer’s assistance. The courses run from basic level to advance and are offered for women as well.

Preventive 2005/2006

Direction and Advice

The workshops address the changes in the life of adolescents and raises awareness in families about the various problems that can arise. Since January 2006 Karama has run Teenage Stage Workshops. It is a workshop that is held by psychologist Sharly Zidan. This workshop helps teenagers and adults to meet twice a month to be able to discuss the many changes that affect them mentally, socially and emotionally during this period of their life. After having discussions about various topics concerning these issues, they were divided into small groups. Each group discussed the issues that were most urgent in that specific group. Then each person, individually, wrote about the thoughts and issues they felt needed to be dealt with or discussed more. This gave each person the opportunity to reflect on a deeper level of how they function and how to express their feelings in words. The aim was to work on communication and to build understanding and respect for the feelings and integrity of the adolescents as well as adults.

Infant's Afternoon

The circumstances in the refugee camp make life especially hard for the children. In Deheishe there are neither playgrounds nor sports grounds, there are also no public kindergartens or any place offering to take care of them. Since approximately 80% of Deheishe's adults are unemployed, most of the families cannot afford toys or even painting equipment, which helps little children to improve their learning ability.

For this reason older Karama kids organize regularly an "Infant's Afternoon". Every Friday they invite little children in the age of four to six years to our centre where both youth and infants play, sing, dance and paint. For that purpose Karama has bought some simple toys like blocks, toy cars and coloured pens which present something special for the majority of Deheishe's children. Because Karama's "Infant's Afternoon" provide them the only occasion to play with those things.

Moreover the Karama youth think about special activities that can bring joy to their little guests. They have thought out dances, drawn cartoons and given little lessons, where infants have learned Arabic and English numbers for the first time.

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Karama - Newspaper

November 26th, 2004 the Karama kids published their own newspaper for the first time. Nine girls and boys previously started editing and took the responsibility of the layout, contents as well as of the publication and management. Every Karama member has the opportunity to make their own contributions to it. They can write articles by themselves and research on the internet to find interesting stories, poems and information. For each edition the Karama administration will prepare a quiz for a small prize. Monthly a new edition of the newspaper will be published which the Karama kids hand out to the students in Deheishe and Bethlehem.

Assistance lesson for students of the University

In Deheishe many young people study at the Open University in Bethlehem. Some of them go to work at the same time to earn money for their families. This is why some students cannot join the open lectures regularly. In the evening after work, they try to catch up on the subjects which often prove to be difficult without the help of others.

Wa'el, a Karama-volunteer gives Mathematics lessons for boys and girls and also offers lessons in Analyse and Mathematical management for the students. In a period of several months he prepared two groups of young men for their final examinations with lessons three to four times a week.

Wall-Painting project

Karama arranged in cooperation with the Christian Organisation Dar Annadwa for six Karama boys to participate in a Wall-painting project, organised by Al Quds - University. In October 2004 the boys painted, together with international artists and volunteers parts of the Separation Wall that surrounds the West Bank and even divides regions of the Palestinian occupied territories.

wallpic1 .........

The project gave the boys a chance to express their feelings, and especially their feelings about the wall which stands as a reminder of their situation. Within just a few days many different pictures and messages were created which were addressed, not only to the Palestinians, but also to the international community to raise awareness for the Palestinian daily suffering.

Dabka workshop

A group of our Karama - Kids has formed to learn and practice the traditional Arabic Dabka dance. Several times a week both boys and girls meet in the centre to be taught and lead by one boy out of the group. While they practice many of the other Karama children watch them, impressed by the dancing and enjoying listening to the Arabic music.

Theatre workshop

Beate and Hannah, two German volunteers, have offered in September/ October 2004 a theatre workshop for girls between the ages 12 and 16 years. Over about 3 weeks, the group would meet several times a week and learn about modern and different methods of theatre. Through games the girls discovered new possibilities to express themselves and how to create scenes and pictures. Their abstract and creative thinking was a key part of the lessons as well as their ability to improvise. On October 14th the girls presented the results of their hard work in a Deheishe youth club. It was a very successful and impressive performance with dance, music and skits.

Exhibition Project

In June 2003, Karama initiated a cultural project that aimed to describe the camp from our children's point of view. This project ended with an exhibition of photos, drawings and paintings made by the children. The cultural project aims to teach others about the experiences, thoughts and feelings of Palestinian refugee children. It is a creative way to stimulate children and help them to express their history and present time. See some of the pictures here.