Ehab was our first Palestinian volunteer to finish his term here
(Above he is getting his Youthpass certificate).
He writes...
I came to London through the EVS (European
Voluntary Service) which is one of Youth in Action projects. I stayed for three months. During my time I worked with CADFA
(Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association) on
two projects: the first one was Arabic
teaching in schools and in the evening a class for adults, and the second one was
agriculture.
The first project went very well , and I
had many student coming regularly in both schools and evening class , however my
second project did not go as well as the first one, because of the rainy and cold weather of London ,that did not allow us to do outdoor planting project in the school gardens.
I used to go to a three schools a week
(Acland Burghley, Hampstead and Maria Fideles )where I used to teach Arabic and tell the students about Palestine. Also I
used to take part in the after school club in London Wildlife Trust in Hackney borough where I used to help in teaching students. The work I was doing was
very challenging because of the difficulty of the Arabic language and the lack
of information that people have about Palestine because of the media.
During my first month I lived in Camden and for my second and third month I lived in Hackney, with Sally Haywell.
In my first day in London I was very amazed
by everything, the old buildings, the
buses, the trains and the technological development of the city. At the beginning I
started becoming very stressed from it because it life in it was very fast and crowded, also the difficult of
the transport system, but with time I became used to it and I start enjoying
its beauty and cultural diversity. After that I start seeing the difference between life in England and life in Palestine and how it feels to leave
free with no fear or restriction on your movement or beliefs.
It is very amazing to be able to move and
travel with safely with no worries, which is a lot different from what I am
used to in Palestine, therefore I made the most of it while I was still in
England, I visited many cities and areas to try to see the most of England.
