News from Abu Dis

More strikes in Abu Dis! Public schools have called for regular strikes in the last few weeks throughout the whole of Palestine! The Girls School was closed both last week and the week before and unfortunately will be closed tomorrow.

Some sad news from Palestine:
This week a 14-year old girl from Abu Dis died on the way to a hospital in Betlehem, after finding the 'Container' checkpoint closed. The girl suffered from severe pneumonia and didn't make it to the next hospital. The news are even sadder as this is not the first time that similar episodes happen, many people have died on their way to the hospital because of closed checkpoints or because soldiers didn't let them pass.

We Want To Play a Football Match!!!

   I (Suzan) and Safia went to Camden girls school for our regular lunch club, where we met Una( the teacher who runs the lunch club ) and there were 7 girls waiting for us:) We were supposed to do the IDs game but  I found that I brought half cards so Safia suggested to show a video entitled (We Want To Play a Foot ball Match) which was made by  Palestinian children who enacted the reality of our land.

    It was about some children who  wanted to play a football match just near a small playground local to their home. So they actually went but the Israeli soldiers stopped them and started to ask them about their IDs and one of the soldiers hit a boy so his friend tried to defend  him but the soldiers hit him and took him to the prison!

    So after they watched the video I asked them what can you now tell us about what you saw, and really they were so smarts and asked a lot of questions :) I can tell now that those girls started to understand the situation in Palestine . Next Friday the girls suggested if we could have  lunch together and they said they would prefer it if we brought some Palestinian food like zaatr, bread, olive oil, olives :) we will have fun :D

  I took  pictures of the girls and the lunch club but we still are waiting the permit from the parents of the girls :)

Introduction to the Human Right Media School

I went today to the school alone, where I met Erica (the teacher who runs the lunch club) and we went to meet 16 girls who wanted to know more about the Human Right Media School project. Erica talked about it very well . I and the other girls (Louise, Katrina, and Jessica who help in running the lunch club) answered the questions after the discussion. Erica handed out all the leaflets and asked the girls who were so interested in it to start contacting  her or even on Cadfa's website which is written on the leaflet.

Abu Dis Girls School on strike

Teachers at the Abu Dis Girls School are on strike for 3 days, following a 2-week strike during which the students went home early every day. See you next week!

Menus, strikes, and French!

Today we moved classroom and we used the French laboratory! The girls imagined they opened a restaurant in London and designed a menu of the delicious food they would offer!

Here are the menus. The names they chose for their restaurants were: Seyran Restaurant, Friends' Restaurant, and Love Restaurant! They offer a series of Palestinian and Middle Eastern delicacies as well as international food like burgers and chips.

Once again, we didn't have a session with the 7th grade, because teachers have been on strike for a week now and students go home 2 hours early!

Some posters we found in the classroom:

London and Palestine: how are they different?

The session with grade 9 today focussed on learning more about London. This is what the students already knew about it (including some local attractions)

 Then we asked the question: what is the same and what is different between London and Palestine? The girls had lots of ideas but unfortunately had to go early because they had to get ready for an exam!

 

Unfortunately there was no session with the 7th grade, because teachers all over Palestine have called for a strike to improve their salaries and working conditions.