Stretching our Limits

Three years ago, TYO opened its doors to the communities living in our five target areas; El-Ein, Balata, New and Old Askar, the Old City, and the surrounding Khallet Al-Amood neighborhood. We have struggled with the Arabic-English barrier, buses that aren’t always on time and, of course, the burning sun we have all come to love. Perhaps the most difficult task, however, has been saying “No.”

Today, a mother from El-Ein refugee camp came into my office with her three children, two boys and a girl. Her children’s ages ranging from 3 to 7 years old. She had heard last night that there was a respected free community center in Khallet Al-Amood and had desperately tried to put her kids on the TYO bus this morning. As a matter of organization, our bus drivers strictly limit who can and cannot get on the bus via a TYO List of Participants. (After all, we do not want to accidentally take a scared and confused child across town.)

This particular mother, though, was not going to give up so easily. Despite not having any money with her, she took a private taxi across town with her three children at her side and found her way to my office. She sat down in front of her children and me and begged. I couldn’t help but match her tears with my own. Her husband recently suffered from a stroke that left the right side of his body incapacitated and the home without a breadwinner. She has little supportive family in the community and is, as a result, left alone to take care of her husband and three children in an impoverished household.

Her desperation brought her to TYO four weeks after our Core program began. My immediate response was a difficult denial not because it is difficult to integrate new kids in the program, but because we simply do not have the resources to enroll every child who wants to and needs to come to our center. But her persistence and her story made me realize that TYO is the one place where we can’t afford to say no. It may force us to have larger class sizes and we certainly can’t take in every child, but we have to try our best.

Her kids, she said, are very shy and have no place to go in the refugee camp. They ask her each day why they can’t just be like the other kids in the world, why they can’t be children. These words from a three-year-old brought a mother to TYO, a place whose doors opened specifically for these kids who lack support elsewhere.

In the end, we managed to enroll her two older kids in the program, but there are still children who need help, children who we can’t help. This is easily the hardest part of my job, and I don’t know if there is anything to be done.

- Suhad

Suhad is the Psychosocial Program Manager at TYO Nablus.

Civic Engagement Training: Literacy in Palestine

On Saturday, March 19, 2011, Tomorrow’s Youth Organization hosted the first of five civic engagement workshops for the volunteer participants in our collaboration with the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI). Dr. Alia Asali, manager of the Education Department at An-Najah University, led the workshop, which highlighted the status of literacy in Palestine. She noted that while literacy rates in Palestine are high compared to other Arab countries, the last two decades have seen a decline, especially among the younger generations. At An Najah University in Nablus, she witnesses the effects of this decline first hand. She said that many students’ abilities do not reflect their grade level through middle school and high school, resulting in a number of university students that only possess basic reading and writing skills.

The discussion during the workshop focused on how innovative community programming, such as the TYO-MEPI collaboration, can help children, youth and mothers rediscover a love for learning and reading. Fostering this appreciation allows the community to focus on meeting each child’s needs by involving them in an active learning process.

 

 

Intern Journal: Adjusting My Expectations

It’s a cardinal rule that I have when I travel that I do not have too many expectations. If you are flexible with what you will find, then you will not be disappointed. Your preconceptions about whatever new place you are going to are probably not founded on much more than  your stereotypes or your guidebooks or your friends’ experiences, and it serves you best just to go with an open mind.

Of course I’ve tried to approach many things in Nablus and at TYO in a similar way and for the most part I believe I’ve done a fairly good job and had a wonderful experience because of it, just letting myself soak up and be impressed by what is happening and not being concerned with how it differed from my expectations.

But I may have faltered a bit.

I had a vision of teaching dance to the mothers here at TYO that would expose them to as many forms of dance as I have an elementary grasp of: ballet, tap, jazz, salsa, meringue and (my personal favorite) hip hop.  When I arrived here last October I was intent on actualizing that vision.  It was then that I hit my first hurdle: the mothers weren’t particularly interested in dancing at all.  They were interested in losing weight.  And, their concept of exercise did not include any form of dancing.

That was okay though because I was then on a mission.  I would teach them dance, help them lose weight (or at least get a good workout ) and then they would know that dance is good exercise.  So I began to choreograph little workouts set to music that combined simple dance moves with simple aerobics workouts and it was a success!  My class seemed happy, and when I kicked off the spring session, I had some returning students.

A few weeks ago, I began teaching the moms the salsa steps, which I could tell they really enjoyed learning and practicing.  I ran into an issue, which was that whenever I would concentrate on a set of partners to help them get the steps down, the other ladies would begin to pack up and go!  I could never quite get them all to stay so my salsa classes were eventually dropped.

To replace them and to ensure that my ladies were getting a good workout, I introduced a weight set using full water bottles as weights.  The women have taken to it really well and have appreciated shaking up the routine that way.  Another success!

Then, this week, what might have become the death-knell of my vision of a dance-geared exercise class, was that my ladies requested that there be no music.  Of course, I don’t know how long I could have gotten away with playing my favorite music instead of their favorite music anyways.

I realized, however, that the point of my coming to Nablus was not to cater to what I wanted to do to improve people’s lives here (albeit in a very small way).  In teaching the exercise class that I now teach, I provide women with a chance to get out of their houses and enjoy themselves for a few hours a week.  They chat with their friends, they bring their adorable children, they have a good time.  They are also able to treat their bodies well and to learn about good nutrition.  At the end of the day, providing any helpful service that I can is the essential part of my being here, not the specific form that service may take.

– Bieta

Bieta is an intern at TYO Nablus and a participant in the Kalimatna Initiative.

Intern Journal: Multi-generational programming

The soundtrack to my yoga class differs from any I’ve been in before. Many of the women participating in the class are mothers and some of them bring their children with them when they come to yoga. So in addition to audible deep breaths in and out, I can also hear infants gurgling or the pattering of toddlers’ feet as I guide the class through forward bends, standing poses, and twists.

The yoga room offers just one view of the multi-generational environment at TYO. The Core Child Program consists of health, art, sports, and technology classes for 4 to 8 year-olds, but early childhood education is not the only site of learning here. This session I and another intern teach classes in art and drama for 9-12 year-olds, while two former interns are leading a mural painting and photography project with 12-15 year-olds. The volunteers who assist in our classes are local students from An-Najah University. And just this week 25 women began orientation for a economic empowerment project started by TYO.

As an organization, TYO itself is still in its infancy, having started just 2 years ago. Its ability to offer programs and involvement to community members of all ages creates the unique setting where at any moment I can ask advice from an older staff member, hear about growing up during the second intifada from someone my age, or smile at the sight of small children sliding across the marble-like floor of the main hall. When I asked Chelsey, the program coordinator from Maine, if TYO anticipated the young students in my class eventually becoming volunteer assistants, she told me that in her mind TYO will be a success when a child who completed the core program becomes the center director. What a positive vision for tomorrow’s youth!

-Kara

Kara is an intern at TYO Nablus and a participant in the Kalimatna Initiative.

TYO Celebrates International Children’s Day

Yesterday, TYO celebrated United Nations’ International Children’s Day. About 200 community members, including children and parents, came to TYO’s Open Day to enjoy an exciting array of activities, including art and sports activities, face painting and debka.

A special thanks to all the  TYO volunteers who did an incredible job orchestrating the day and leading activities.