By Didi Radha Acharya
Two new schools have been started in Egypt in September, 2024. The schools were started and financed under the auspices of AMURTEL Cairo, for Palestinian refugees. The concepts of NHE have been shared, and I, along with Didi Anandarama, will begin offering incremental NHE training to the teachers starting in March. Respecting the Prana Dharma and religion of the Palestinian Muslim population, the philosophy of NHE will be locally applied, while supporting the agency of the very skilled teachers. As a people that have lost not only their houses, families and children, but also their cultural heritage, schools, universities, ancient libraries, religion, and places of worship. It is important that they not only be able to fully apply their sense of agency as human beings to create, but also have the feeling of our collective support in continuing their existence on all levels and fully regaining their inner sense of dignity. I, along with Lesley Whiting, am in constant contact with the schools and collaborating with the instructors.
Meera Skills Development Centre
A Palestinian Kindergarten in Cairo, Egypt
Co-coordinator Wejdal
The Meera Skills Development Centre, was started in September, 2024. There are 100 families enrolled to send their children here. Palestinian refugee children cannot enroll in Egyptian schools, because they do not have residency permits. Palestinians by tradition are a highly educated and literate Arab population, and the children urgently need to continue their learning. The school is fulfilling this urgent need. The school has now started with small groups of 20 children, each coming a few times a week. Families can’t afford to pay for transport, but we will be fundraising for a school bus in order to carry, regularly and daily, more children to the school.
The head teacher, Wejdal previously was running the best kindergarten in Gaza City with 500 children and 35 teachers. Her kindy was bombed and completely destroyed in the war; many of her children and teachers died as well. Even under war conditions, she continued to teach to children in the street amid the rubble. She escaped with her family to Rafah, where she was eventually helped to cross the border and came to Cairo as a refugee. When I left Italy after my Amurtel fundraising, I was sure all those funds were to start schools. The day after I arrived in Cairo I met Wejdal, who told me of her dream to start a kindergarten in Cairo. Immediately we found that the space underneath the Palestinian Cultural Centre would be available from the 1st of September. The owner was very kind and favorable to the kindergarten initiative, and Amurtel helped with the down payment for the contract of the premises.
Wejdan started to involve her whole family, and together they did the whole setup of the kindy in less than a week. All the classrooms were prepared very colorfully, with one classroom dedicated to Montessori materials for language teaching, one classroom for various teaching and for puppet theatre, and an open space for exercises, games, and outdoor playing. At the opening there were over 100 families and all wanted to send their children. Amurtel also paid for 5 months salaries of 2 teachers.
Art Therapy and Drawings
Wejdan is very skilled in art, and a Master in Art Therapies for children. Children naturally love her and attach to her. She is also skilled in helping children with retarded speech due to war trauma. Many of our children, and teachers as well, lost close family members and suffered many other war vicissitudes and trauma. Art Therapy is used to process their pain and trauma. All the drawings pictured in this article are from teachers and children, from their various activities. The drawings will be used to make a 2025 calendar and tee-shirts for raising funds for relief and for a school bus for the Cairo Kindergarten. Cairo is a huge city, and Palestinian families don’t have funds to pay for their children’s transport. So, a school bus is essential.
Donations: amurtel.org
Palestinian Bright Minds Academy
Al Areesh, South Egypt
An elementary school, Palestinian Bright Minds, with teacher Hadeel. The school has more than 130 children enrolled of which 17 are kindergarten age. She started the school by inviting kids of all ages into her own living room at first, teaching different classes there. Amurtel paired up with a donor from Canada to support the school and is still providing all school materials, books, chairs, tables, etc. There is also psychological support for the children provided in collaboration with Magda, a Palestinian/Canadian sponsor, that is offered only online at the moment.
Hadeel is a very competent and attentive teacher, very caring towards the children, with great leadership and ability to create feelings of fun and joy among the children. She is also very active in the community among displaced Palestinian families and she runs regular distribution of food, hygiene bags, medicines, clothing, shoes etc., collected and provided by AMURTEL funds. Her family is still living in Gaza, so through her father we are sending donations to get regular trucks of fresh drinkable water into Gaza itself.
Educational Activities Started in Tents in Gaza
We started 3 educational activities, respectively with 3 Palestinian teachers, Asmaa, Reema, and Palestina, in tents on the sand in Khan Younis, Gaza. We saw first-hand the children of Gaza living in tents with nothing else but the desert sand under their feet. No toys, no books, no pencils, no blackboards. AMURTEL is not permitted to enter Gaza, but we put together a few teachers that we could reach through our Palestinian contacts and gave them the needed financial support, and immediately and happily they gathered the children, organized activities, got pen and pencils and whatever notebooks they could find in Gaza, and even whiteboards to write on. The children and teachers became so happy as new life entered their veins.
STUDENT and TEACHER ART WORK
Art Therapy is used to process their pain and trauma. Many of our children and teachers lost their close family members, and suffered many other war vicissitudes and trauma.
