A good evening in Lewisham

 Our friends in South East London invited people for a meal and organised an event in a local library....

 They asked the Palestinian women to sit in the front and introduce themselves...

and Leen sang....

There were lots of stories told and lots of discussion in different groups....

It was a very good evening....














but a long journey back for some people...

Here are Bian and Rana on the way back to Brent... a train, a tube...They are used to  long hold-ups at checkpoints in Palestine but not used to an hour at a time underground.  Long, long journeys across town were one of the things the Palestinian women didn't like about London!

Bad news

On the way back to Palestine, Karameh went to give the CADFA Get Well cards to Adam and Johar, who were in hospital recovering after having both of them being shot in the legs on their way home from football. Here is a picture of them together.

After being in Jordan for about three months, they were well enough to go home. But on the way back across the border, the two young men were arrested by the Israeli army and they are still in prison. In Camden we did a protest to call for their release.

So many skills

On the Palestinian day, the Palestinian women showed off so many skills to the British women, from cooking to embroidery to dancing and singing... as well as talking about their lives in a very strong way.

A good memory - YOGA

Something I remember is YOGA - it was the first experience for all of the girls.

Did they find it easy...  NO!!!

But they enjoyed it so much.

A Palestinian British passport

Dr Fadwa brought her fathers' Palestinian passport to show us - this is a British passport saying 'Palestine.' - It was issued under the British Mandate in Palestine

Meeting with the Holborn Asian Women’s Association (HOWA)

HOWA had invited the Palestinian women to meet with them after their sewing class at IA Community Arts Centre. They were welcomed and after introductions the women showed their visitors the beautiful handiwork that they were working on. They had also prepared a very delicious meal of Bangladeshi food, although they had reduced the amount of spices, being aware that Palestinians were not accustomed to hot spicy food.  

 During the meal they discussed many of the issues that affected women in Palestine. Their hosts were very interested and asked many questions as they were not aware of what life was like living under occupation. They talked about checkpoints, the difficulties of going to Jerusalem and visiting Al Aqsa mosque, how families were separated by the different IDs etc. They were very shocked to hear these stories. 

The new Director of Holborn Community Association joined the meeting. He was most interested in the activities of CADFA as he had spent much time in Egypt and the Middle East. He enjoyed practising his Arabic with the visitors and wanted very much to assist them.

Moral support

CADFA PROJECT FEEDBACK FORM

Name:  Reem Jubeh

Project:  Women in Action

Project dates:  February 27- March 9

 

I gave them feedback about my first impressions when I met people in England, and how people there are friendly. I explained to them about the moral and emotional support that we found there. Also, I told them about the twinning between British towns and Palestinian villages and the ability to build more twinning. 

Why did you choose that sort of feedback?

Because they have to know that there is moral support from people we can’t see it or hear about it, but it is more effective and useful than the monetary support. And they also have to know that we can have the opportunities develop ourselves and build new relationships that will affect us positively more than anything else.

How did it go? 

It was successful because my colleagues were excited to hear about this...  They asked more about the program and the twinning, also they agreed on my speech and said that there is a hope to have a better life if there is people like those stand beside us.