Palestine News Network (PNN) : "Rachel's Impression" by Rachel Campbell

Rachel's Impression

08.02.11 - 12:03

By Rachel Campbell - Living in Palestine has been a life changing experience for me. I have only been here for 2 weeks but my experiences in the West Bank have seemed to flip everything that I thought about the Middle East upside down.

Photo By Paidia

I had been studying in Jerusalem since August and somehow amongst the papers and exams.Palestine was something that rarely crossed my mind even though the separation wall was only a bus ride away.
 

My class schedule seemed to slant on the Jewish side as I found myself studying Midrash in Rabbinical Thought and Zionism in Modern Middle East.

How fortunate was I to be given the opportunity to volunteer in Palestine for 3 weeks in January, and see for myself both sides of the conflict. From day one I fell in love with the Palestinian people and Paidia’s passion for transforming their youth.

I came to Paidia with previous experience in experiential learning from a camp in the United States, where in the period of a week I could see the fruit of team building exercises in 4th and 5th grade campers.

Photo By Paidia

Something amazing happens when youth are given a problem that they have to solve together without the help of parents and teachers. Instead of being told what and how to complete a task, they work together in community to overcome something that always initially seems impossible.
 

Paidia takes many groups of kids and works with them not only for a week, but for a school year, and builds relationships of trust between the facilitators and the students.

Even more importantly, they build a community of trust between the students themselves. Paidia is showing kids how to communicate, how to solve problems, pay attention to details, and then apply strategies and principles to their daily lives. I feel honored to work with these students and hope that one day many of the lessons they have learned through interacting with Paidia will allow them to be constructive and effective leaders in Palestine.

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• 08/02/2011 13:00 - UK Gives New Aid to Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon
• 08/02/2011 11:35 - Top Football Clubs Unite to Educate Young Adults in Bethlehem
• 08/02/2011 11:24 - Leaked Documents: Suleiman was Israeli Preference
• 07/02/2011 16:26 - Bethlehem Nominated to UNESCO World Heritage List

 
 
 
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