Madaa Creative Center- Silwan ended its summer events and activities, which were organized for the people of the town over the past three months.
Madaa Creative Center has launched its summer activities in the beginning of June to coincide with the start of Jerusalem schools’ summer vacation. The events included religious and cultural evenings, summer camps, scouting outside the town, trips to depopulated Palestinian villages, and recreational trips.
Ramadan evenings
About those activities and events, Majd Gaith, Project Manager of Madaa Center explained that the summer events began with religious evenings for the children and women of Silwan, on the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan. These evenings included lessons, religious songs, and prayers.
Holiday (Eid) Festival… “Fozi Mozi”
After the end of the month of Ramadan and on the occasion of Al Fitr Holiday, Madaa Creative Center sponsored a festival with “Fozi Mozi” in Dar Eltifl Al Arabi schoolyard in Jerusalem, in which about two thousand children from across the city participated in.
“I love you Silwan Camp 10”
Gaith added that in July Madaa Center launched for the tenth year in a row the free of charge summer camp “I love you Silwan 10”. It included recreational, educational, and awareness activities, through “Dabkeh”dancing, documentaries, library, computer, art and drawing, and sports. In the camp 600 children participated, ages ranging from 5-15 years old, male and female, pointing out that the camp organized its activities in two shifts (morning and evening), in the branches of Madaa Center, the playground of Wadi Hilweh, and the gardens of Silwan.
Gaith explained that the participants in the camp this year were divided into 13 groups. Each group carried a name of a neighborhood of Silwan’s neighborhoods, in order to entrench the neighborhoods’ names to the new generation on one hand, and to keep all the neighborhoods of Silwan and its quarters present at this annual camp on the other hand. The camp ended with a trip to the city of Jericho, and a march in the streets of Wadi Hilweh neighborhood where the children launched balloons in the sky of the city.
A “cultural, athletic, artistic, and social” camp
Gaith added that Madaa Creative Center participated in the month of July at a camp called "cultural, athletic, artistic, and social" in Talita National School in Beit Jala, organized by the network "Sawa Sawa". The camp included during its five days the events of Dabkeh, singing, poetry, music, Aikido performances, photography skills and soccer.
“Depopulated Villages” Camp
Madaa Creative Center organized the “Depopulated Villages” Camp, where 200 boys between the ages of 12-14 years participated in the camp. Gaith explained that this five day camp included introductory and educational tours in the neighborhoods of Silwan, Particularly in the neighborhood of Wadi Rababah, in addition to the destroyed villages surrounding the city of Jerusalem (Sataf and Lifta). In addition to the workshops that educated young participants which focused on the “protection of the child and legal guidance”, and the camp concluded with a trip to the city of Jericho.
Creativity Camp…
Madaa Creative Center also organized a “creativity camp” in “Ibdaa’ Kindergarten” in the neighborhood of Sala'ah in Silwan, in which 150 children participated between the ages 6 and 14. The camp included entertainment and awareness activities, through inflatable games, clowns, and arts and painting as Majd Gaith explained.
Roots Camp…
Madaa Creative Center participated in “Roots Camp” in the village of Iqrith in the interior parts of Palestine, where Gaith explained that 14 boys were involved in the activities of the camp, which lasted for two days, during which they learned about the history of this Christian depopulated Palestinian village, which used to belong to the surroundings of Acre. The children also learned about its location; they went there for a tour and set up poetry evenings, in order to strengthen relations between the citizens of the nation, and to confirm the right to return.
“My protection is my priority” Camp
Madaa Creative Center also participated in “my protection is my priority” camp, in Jenin, where workshops were held for the participating children centered on the "protection of children", in addition to recreational activities. Gaith pointed out that 10 boys participated in the camp between the ages 12-15.
“Agency School” Camp
Madaa Creative Center also organized a summer camp for the agency schools in Silwan, by setting a schedule for them and enriching them with materials and ideas. 100 children participated in the camp ages ranging from 7-12 years.
“Back to school” Session
At the end of the summer events the staff of the center organized a seminar titled “Back to School” to prepare children and to help them organize their time to study, and to urge them to pay attention to learning and to follow-up with their daily assignments. They were also notified about the sessions that the center will give during school days.
At the end of the summer events the center organized a trip for all the participants of the camp to the city of Tiberias.
Women Activities
Gaith said that the summer activities program included a segment for women from the town of Silwan, where they joined tours and trips to depopulated villages as well as leisure trips.
Madaa Center… Discovering talents and investing in capabilities
Majd Gaith, director of the program said that each year Madaa Creative Center seeks to expand its events and its educational and recreational activities for all the children and the youth of Silwan during their summer vacations, by organizing different activities according to the ages of the participants. Gaith added that the staff and volunteers of the center and the summer activities are eager to discover the talents and abilities of the participants to develop them through sessions held throughout the year.
Gaith said that the aim of these annual summer activities is to create a safe environment for the children of Silwan, especially with the lack of clubs and public playgrounds due to the negligence of the Israeli municipality of these needs, and the difficult psychological conditions in which these children live in and the daily scenes of incursions to the neighborhoods of the town, as well as the arrests and clashes.
Gaith added that Madaa Center laid a strategy to increase activities in the town of Silwan to reach the largest number of children and youths. It recently opened another branch in the "middle lane" neighborhood in the town.
Musa Abbasi, cultural coordinator at Madaa Creative Center explained that the summer activities and events serve their interest to invest in the physical and mental capabilities of the participants and to motivate them to develop these skills, as well as to integrate between participants, and help them meet the challenges they are experiencing. This was carried out by the efforts of the women and youth.
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