Friday, November 16, 2007
Visiting Jenin
Last sunday we went to Jenin. We, that is Markus, S
ebastian and Simon from Germany with David from the US and I.
After having delicious tea and cookies at the house of Bassam and his wife, he gave us a great tour through the refugee camp and the city. The military is active in the refugee camp nearly every night. We could see it in the news during the second intifada, when the military demolished some of the houses there, sometimes with the inhabitants inside.
We visited a partner of the Hans-Seidel-Foundation (Bassam is its director in Palestine), a hospital for disabled children in the refugee camp. It was impressive to see where and how they work. A lot of children are injured and/or traumatised through the fighting.
The sculpture of the horse is made of parts from an ambulance. It was shot at during the second intifada while trying to rescue injured people. It caught fire, but nobody was allowed to help.
The second partner of the foundation is a NGO that does workshops with children about conflict solutions, how to deal with agressions and about creativity. Furthermore they organise summer camps for the kids.
We
then had a walk through the old and the new city, interrupted by coffee breaks at two shops of Bassams family and friends, very nice and Sebastian was close to becoming engaged!
Jenin is a much more conservative place than Ramallah. Bars that serve beer would be destroyed the same day.
I also added some photos of the IT training center built by the Hans-Seidel-Foundation, it was partly destroyed by a rocket in 2005.
ebastian and Simon from Germany with David from the US and I.After having delicious tea and cookies at the house of Bassam and his wife, he gave us a great tour through the refugee camp and the city. The military is active in the refugee camp nearly every night. We could see it in the news during the second intifada, when the military demolished some of the houses there, sometimes with the inhabitants inside.
We visited a partner of the Hans-Seidel-Foundation (Bassam is its director in Palestine), a hospital for disabled children in the refugee camp. It was impressive to see where and how they work. A lot of children are injured and/or traumatised through the fighting.
The sculpture of the horse is made of parts from an ambulance. It was shot at during the second intifada while trying to rescue injured people. It caught fire, but nobody was allowed to help.The second partner of the foundation is a NGO that does workshops with children about conflict solutions, how to deal with agressions and about creativity. Furthermore they organise summer camps for the kids.
We
then had a walk through the old and the new city, interrupted by coffee breaks at two shops of Bassams family and friends, very nice and Sebastian was close to becoming engaged!Jenin is a much more conservative place than Ramallah. Bars that serve beer would be destroyed the same day.
I also added some photos of the IT training center built by the Hans-Seidel-Foundation, it was partly destroyed by a rocket in 2005.
