Please support the children of Palestine this Xmas
Once again I am asking you to dig deep and support the ALTawfawk Centre. As a trustee for The Brighton Trust I am asking you to contribute what you can afford to making Xmas in Palestine that bit more bearable for the children of Palestine. .
As a result of an approach from members of the New Education Union in Brighton and Hove the Trust agreed to adopt a community centre in Jenin. So far both Brighton and Hove Unison and Unite SE/6246 Branch have contributed. We hope to be able to send the Centre as large a donation as possible before Xmas.
This is fromthe Head Teacher Mona Jalamnh
I am the head teacher and founder of Al-Tawfawk English Center in the Jenin Refugee Camp, Jenin, Palestinian Territories. We are in desperate need of volunteers to make the center bigger, safer, and better for our kids.
We currently have three rooms, and five local volunteer teachers. We serve kids aged 6-16 after school, and currently we have 52 students. Our goal is to provide a safe, clean environment for the kids, where they can have a healthy snack and learn English to better their futures. If funding is secured, we would like to open up another floor of the building that we rent, so that we could take 2-6 year-old children during school hours (8am to 2pm), and have additional space for other students.
We have been open for nearly six years. I started with only 4 students, and now, unfortunately, I have to turn students away. This is because we have a lack of space and qualified teachers. Our dream is to expand the school to allow more students to study, as well as attract volunteers who speak English as their first language. We prefer education-based volunteers, and would require background checks, but our main requirement is unaccented examples for the children to practice with.
Our biggest need, currently, is funding. We need to complete some repairs on the rooms that we currently use, and we sometimes struggle to pay the rent. Students pay for the classes, if they can. However, if they cannot, we have a system in place that allows them to continue in the classes. If funding is secured and we are able to expand, our next need will be volunteers.
We are looking for young men and women who love kids and are interested in Arabic culture. Room and board would be provided for the volunteers, but we don’t have much money to offer as compensation. We currently have room for three volunteers, and if interested, we ask that they stay a full school year (9 months), to have continuity for our students.If you, or anyone that you know, are interested in this project, or if you have any more question, please contact me at
al.tafawk.center.jenin.camp@gmail.com .
Thank you for your time, Mona Jalamnh
Jenin was the subject of a massacre in 2002 when Israel used military bulldozers to demolish homes with their inhabitants still inside them.
In the past year many schools have closed as a result of Donald Trump having cut of US funding to UNWRA. The Al Tawfawk Centre is the only one left standing.
The Brighton Trust has agreed to donate £50 per month to the Centre. I would like to appeal to all those who read this to consider sending a donation, however small or large to the following account. We will then forward it on.
For more information about the Centre see their Facebook page. We will pay the costs of a SWIFT transfer which is £25.
Please Donate to:
Account Name: The Brighton Trust
Account Number: 91420311
Sort Code: 09-01-28
AND PLEASE MARK IT ‘AL-TAWFAWK’
Tony Greenstein