Care and Learning
Care and Learning was a children's aid organization foundedby Arna Mer-Chamis in Palestine . For her work with children, Mer-Chamis was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 1993.
history
At the beginning of the First Intifada in 1987, Mer-Chamis saw the need to establish centers for children affected by the violence around them. For this reason she founded the organization Care and Learning . The main location was initially prisons , where hundreds of Palestinian children were held in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. Mer-Chamis mobilized Israeli lawyers to stand up for these children and, along with volunteers, regularly visited prisons, spoke to parents and provided support.
Between 1988 and 1990 all schools in the occupied Palestinian territories were closed by the Israeli authorities . To complement the informal and domestic “folk learning” developed by Palestinian women's groups during this period , Care and Learning regularly sent volunteers to the Jenin region at weekends to give children the opportunity to express themselves creatively and to deal with their traumatic experiences with paper, crayons and paints To process experiences. These courses took place on the street and were attended by around 200 to 300 children. Arna Mer-Chamis, herself a teacher with a focus on special education and art therapy , developed teaching material that was intended to stimulate learning in a creative, unconventional way.
After schools reopened, many children between the ages of 8 and 10 were illiterate, and a Care and Learning survey found that 47 percent of children in Jenin had been involved in physical confrontations with Israeli soldiers, including beatings, shootings and attacks Tear gas belonged.
As a countermeasure, Care and Learning opened four children's homes in Jenin and the adjacent refugee camp, which functioned as educational and cultural centers. By 1993, more than 1500 children were admitted to the children's homes; the staff included 15 paid freelancers and 25 volunteers.
After the death of Arna Mer-Chamis in February 1995, her son Juliano continued her work with the " Freedom Theater ", which was based on the ideas of Arna's work. Juliano was murdered in 2011. The Freedom Theater will continue.
Movies
- Arna's children , documentary, 2004, 84 min.
Web links
- Portrait at rightlivelihoodaward.org (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Arna Mer-Khamis. Right Livelihood Award , accessed September 6, 2018 .
- ^ The Freedom Theater
- ↑ Andrea Nüsse: Juliano Mer Khamis The heart of Jenin no longer beats in Der Tagesspiegel of April 6, 2011