Walking the children to school

See our photos of Ein El Hilwa school open day on Flikr

On 17th November Jordan Valley Solidarity (JVS) held an open day at Ein El-Hilweh tent school. Several volunteers from Poland, Spain, Ireland, France and Palestine collected children from their homes. We distributed date tree seeds and planted them in the valley as a form of resistance. Games were played throughout the day and photgraphy workshops were run for the children.

Children were enthusiastic and took activities seriously. Everyone walked to a local meeting tent where Raquel used pictures to explain how to take a photograph. Lessons were translated by Palestinian volunteers, Motasim and Ibrahim. Under instruction, all children participated by building their own camera oscura.

Children were then taught how to take pictures and given single-use cameras to learn for themselves.

Raquel commented, ‘It was so funny to see how they reacted when asked to take photos. One of them took a lot of photos at the same time but the rest kept the camera like a treasure waiting for the right moment to snap.’

They learned quickly how to operate the functions of the cameras. French volunteer Gerard noted how eager and seriously the children learned the new skill… an opportunity normally forbidden to them under Israeli occupation laws which have turned their daily lives in to a struggle to exist.

Polish volunteer Maciek said, ‘They were very engaged in the learning, constantly asking questions in Arabic even though we couldn’t reply. Communication using gestures and common signals was easy for everyone.’

Afterwards, everyone went to the tent school together where more children were waiting. Amazingly children started teaching the new children about cameras and how to take a photograph. They were affectionate towards the volunteers all day, holding hands and requesting portraits.

Polish volunteer Paulina said she accidently had a nice experience when, ‘I noticed the donkey running towards the road so I chased him and bumped in to one of the women from the village. We both rode the donkey back to the village where she invited me to her home to drink shai. She showed me around all of the rooms and everything was really nicely organized. We spent half an hour chatting and she invited us to spend the night.’

After the school, everybody visited another community in the village and repeated the activities. At this stage, some of the parents even joined the lessons.

Ein El Hilwe school is really important to the local community, which has suffered sustained acts of violence from the military and fundamental religious settlers living in Maskiyot settlement. Palestinians originally settled here and there was a beautiful natural spring, that gave them access to fresh water nearly all year round – hence the name of the village: Ein El Hilwe, or ‘Sweet Spring’. They have now been prohibited from using the natural spring which flows right through the village, and are forced to buy water in tanks from Israeli state water company, Mekorot.

The school was built by the community and volunteers from JVS in March 2011, and provides education for the young children whose families live around the spring, but also those who live in the surrounding hills. It is run entirely by local volunteer teachers, who visit the families and collect the children every morning, to ensure they can walk to school safely.  In addition to supporting the children’s right to education, continuous international volunteer presence in the village helps reduce and document the violence.

Fathy Khdirat of JVS commented, ‘…We are fighting for their right to education by creating facts on the ground and are raising awareness about the struggle in Ein El-Hilweh.’