My first day in London

Hamstead Heath

Finally we are in London city. that I have already visited the same place 2 years ago with CADFA in the Youth Visit. I'm one of the EVS volunteers. I will stay here for 5 months im excited to learn more about London and England in general .


 I went to LSU school with Dunja and Emilio I had met two student who care about what is happening in Palestine. I told them about my journey crossing the Palestinian Jordanian border before I got my plane in Queen Alya airport .

Momin Taha

Cricket Sunday

 Hi Cadfa Friends,

Last Sunday Cadfa organized a Cricket tournament in London, as a fundraising event.

The day was so busy, we  arrived to the Sports Centre with a lot of stuff  to prepare - a stall, the dome and the wall, Palestinian flags, posters, and everything!
When we put everything up and the tournament started; 10 teams enjoyed the matches with everybody playing against each other and the two teams who won the most matches played the final to fight for  the medals and the cup! Some teams were so professionals and they played so well, but other teams just enjoyed their the day, doing some sport and supporting Cadfa. In the middle of the day we stopped to have a really good and spicy lunch with everybody and we finished the day with the prizes.

The day was so lovely, personally, as a Spaniard without any idea about cricket , I participated in a team. I enjoyed my experience meeting new people, introducing them to Cadfa and knowing a bit more about the British culture.

Emilio Sanchez

EVS Volunteer

The women's visit

Hey everyone,

The women's visit was the most intensive visit for me, because we traveled a lot. At first we spent a long weekend in Wales, After this we traveled to Blackburn. We stayed there for 2 Nights and on the Wednesday we took the train to Worcester. In Worcester and Blackburn people welcomed us warmly. They organised also lots of events where we had the chance to talk about Palestine and CADFA.

Thursday night we arrived in London and had a delicious meal at Te Amo Resturant.

Some of the Girls in front of the house we stayed

lovely nature

TAI CHI every morning to stay healthy ;p
Wales

Blackburn women's centre

Add caption

Our Travel in the Train from Blackburn to Worcester

Bye Bye Worcester.

Youth Visit Leafelet

Hurraaaaay!!!

The leaflets about the next youth visit in June arrived today in the morning. I created them by myself last week and I wasn't sure if they would arrive in time. Now we can start to spread the message. We will need them on Saturday for our demonstration against child prisoners. I am so excited and cant wait to give them out.

Report about last student visit

Some wonderful 10 days just finished. This was my second CADFA visit and now I know that every visit is different from the past. Other people with other personalities and other stories come and characterize your shared time.

Especially this time I was very impressed by the presentations, which the student prepared in Palestine. On the on hand there were so personally and touching and on the other hand there were based on facts and international law. Thank you guys !!!  

The unfair Israeli judical system - Video by Lamia

As a leader in this visit I learned a lot. Firstly, if you want that your group is always on time, then yourself has to be on time ALWAYS. Secondly, it is very important to communicate with the other leaders. Because in some days we divided the student group in three parts, for example at the day we visited the different universities. I took a lot of energy to communicate via phone during the day, because you have to handle lots of stuff as well. It would be much better to make a plan beforehand. In addition to this, I think the next time if we plan to meet, for example to take dinner together, we shouldn't wait for other groups a long time because this just causes other problems. 

I am happy, because I met all this people. I learned a lot from them and know I want to go to Palestine even more, especially to Al-Quds university!!!

Dunja

My time in Gaza

Last Thursday the CADFA open meeting took place. The program included questions and talks about recent projects and a presentation  about my time in Khan Younis (Gaza). In addition Emilio and I organised some refreshments such as falafel and humus, because everyone loves them.

I visited my family in Gaza 3 times, in 2000,2005 and the last time in 2012. Of course, the 6 weeks in summer 2012 are the most memorable for me. 

Its true people are suffering from the blockade and the economic situation, especially unemployment is a big problem. Also space is constricted. Its nearly impossible to buy land and to build your own family house. So its hard for young people to move on and prepare for the future. But on the other hand I had such a lovely time.Of course this time is shaped by my family, all my cousins, aunts and uncles. They are the best. Families are much closer in Palestine compared to Germany. But this is not the only thing. I did lots of nice and fun activities, like going to the beach, market or ice cream shop. One day I went with my cousin to a leisure park. My cousin worked there. Another special day was, when I spent a day in Al-Alqsa University.

An alley between the houses. This is very common in Gaza, because of the lack of space.

The beach, my favourite place in Khan Younis. It's so clean and beautiful. 

Dunja x

Report about the last Leaders Visit

For me the best thing of the last leaders' visit was to meet these wonderful people. Just in 10 days I got to know them really well. We had a lot of fun together. From Friday to Tuesday we spent time together in a big house in the Lake District. Everyone loved nature. After breakfast we had workshops for example about differences in Palestine and Britain, security and health care. Everyday we went out and hiked for a few hours. I really loved it, especially if it was rainy.

We arrived Tuesday evening in London. I was one of the youth leaders. I prepared a programe for the youth leaders group. Thursday, the second day in London, we visited LSU School, Samuel Lithgow Youth Club and finally we met some youth, who were part of the last youth visit.  The goal was to get as many ideas as possible and to start plan the next youth visit in June. We agreed that the LSU school and Samuel Lithgow Youth Club would arrange some events with CADFA during the next visit. I think it was very important that we met each other to see what kind of different opportunities we have in the different locations.  With the last participants we discussed what they liked and what kind of improvements are necessary for the next time.

Friday we started to plan and to discuss the next  youth visit, which will be about drama. We had the idea that we wanted to choose the participants  in Palestine and UK  as fast as possible and start to prepare them. We want to set up regular meetings,  discuss  the topics - Palestine, intercultural exchange and Human Rights, and start to prepare a drama show about these topics.

During the visit we plan to have a  drama workshop at the residential for a few days. We want to put the Palestinian and British shows together to create one. With this show we want to go to London and show it for example in the LSU School or Samuel Lithgow Youth Centre. With this show we can also do fundraising for CADFA.

I loved this visit because I made friends for life. I learned about a lot of different topics with them, developed my skills and we created together a lot of plans for the next visits. I really wish to visit them one day in Palestine. 

Dunja 

P.S.: Miss you all !!!!

North London Muslim Community Centre

Samual Lithgow Youth Center

Meeting with old participants in British Library

Twinning in Action Conference

Last Day, Goodbye!
On the Way to the Airport.