If you have web design and experience an

If you have web design and experience and a big heart, TYO could use your help! http://ow.ly/bOfR1

Inspired by wall art that colors surface

Inspired by wall art that colors surfaces around the West Bank, the Triple Exposure project was designed to engage youth in expressing themselves through art that the public could access, thereby allowing communities in Nablus, the West Bank, and abroad witness the lives and personal expressions of youth. http://ow.ly/6ANLL

We’ve Moved!

Greetings everyone,

We will no longer be posting at this address. Our blog can now be found at http://www.tomorrowsyouth.org/blog. Hope you’ll join us there!

Thanks for reading,

The TYO Team

Ready, set, go!

TYO’s $25k in 25 days campaign starts today!

From now until September 25, we’re inviting you to adopt, join, and mobilize the 250 km/156 miles of Usama Malik’s race through the Sahara Desert. With your support, we can ensure that this race makes a huge difference in the lives of the children, youth, women, and parents that TYO serves.

We’ve only got 25 days to do this, so head over to Crowdrise right now to help us raise $25k in 25 days!

New Triple Exposure galleries online!

New galleries of some of the top shots taken by the Triple Exposure young photographers are now available online.

Check out two new Triple Exposure albums on the TYO Facebook page -

The City of Nablus
and
The Children of Nablus

‘Ana beheb Nablus’ (I love Nablus). By Shahd, age 15, from El Ein refugee camp, Nablus.

A sample from these collections is also viewable on the news site Palestine Monitor.

 

 

TYO’s Community Impact

Why is Usama Malik running 250 km/156 miles through the Sahara Desert?  To ensure the continued profound and positive impact of TYO on the communities it serves.  The stories of just one entrepreneur and one volunteer reveal the broad ripple effect of TYO’s programs on individuals, their families, and the community at large.

Nehaya, Restaurant Owner

Nehaya explains her restaurant to Ambassador Verveer and TYO Nablus Center Director Humaira Wakili

Take one of our FWEN program participants, Nehaya, as an example.  As a student at An-Najah University, she noticed that the students living far from their families craved home-cooked meals.  She came up with a solution–establish a restaurant to offer traditional Palestinian “comfort food,” rather than unhealthy  fast food.  The restaurant could offer take-out for students and catering for large parties and events.

Nehaya enrolled in the FWEN program, where she developed the business and leadership skills necessary to start her restaurant.  Her work with FWEN prepared her for the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women project, a five-week Women’s Entrepreneurship Leadership certificate program at the American University in Cairo.

On March 26, 2011, Nehaya opened her restaurant and hired her mother and aunt as cooks.  With her restaurant, Nehaya is bringing home-cooked meals to the students of An-Najah, business opportunities to the women in her family, and inspiration to women entrepreneurs throughout Nablus.

Nehad, Volunteer and Fall Core Child Program Teacher

Nehad with a Core Child Program student

Nehad’s story provides another great example of TYO’s impact on the lives of our program participants.  She has been a volunteer with the Core Child Program for a year.  Every day that TYO is in session, Nehad leaves her village, Koforqadon, at 7 am to make the hour-long commute to our Nablus center.

Her work with the students in the Core Child Program has brought children like Ghizal out of their shells.  Moreover, Nehad reports that she herself has grown in confidence as a teacher and as an individual throughout her year with TYO.  Because of her dedication to her students and eagerness to learn, Nehad has grown into a talented early childhood teacher while volunteering at TYO.  TYO is excited to be bringing Nehad back to the Core Child Program as a teacher for the fall session.

All of TYO’s Core Child Program teachers, like Nehad, started working with TYO as volunteers.  The Youth Service Learning program includes both trainings and opportunities to cultivate hands-on teaching and mentoring experience.  As volunteers, TYO’s current core teachers cultivated a valuable set of teaching skills.  Now, TYO’s students reap the benefits of having strong, confident, talented teachers.

Help sustain and expand TYO’s community impact by getting involved in the Racing the Planet for TYO campaign!  From September 1-25, people across the globe will ADOPT, JOIN, and MOBILIZE the miles of Usama’s race.  Right now, start planning how you’ll help us raise $25k in 25 days!

Flower Habibis

colorful sea scenes

The second week of our Ramadan arts course revolved around the theme of nature – from the sea, to the land, to the sky. We asked the kids, ages 4 and 5, to demonstrate how plants grow. And they showed us step by step – digging the hole, planting the seed, adding water and the rays of the sun, sprouting and slowly growing till we all were trees swaying in the breeze, arms aloft.

planting flowers

We then put these ideas into action, planting flowers along the entrance of the TYO center. The children loved digging about and watering the plants, seeing their efforts leave something beautiful to brighten up the way into TYO for everyone that comes here.

The houses and multi-story apartments in this neighbourhood (Khallet al-Amood) are built close together, rising vertically up the hillside, with unforgiving steps replacing streets between the densely populated homes. Thanks both to the geography and to urban planning, they rarely have gardens, so a flower-planting activity is a great opportunity for the kids to get their hands dirty, learn a little more about nature and see how we can brighten up even inner city environments.

The next day we moved onto painting. After some butterfly themed stories and games with core teachers Jawad and Haitham, the children painted half a butterfly, folding it in half to print the same colourful pattern on the opposite wing. Each symmetrical creation was unique, bringing joy to the kids as they saw through each step to make their own butterflies and take them home to show all the family.

butterflies / flutter byes