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CARE AND LEARNING - IN DEFENSE OF CHILDREN UNDER OCCUPATION

PO Box 44984, Haifa, Israel

Tel/Fax: 00 972 4 521 134

PO Box 83, Jenin, West Bank, Via Israel

Tel/Fax: 00 972 6 503 668

Director:

Ms Arna Mer Khamis

Type of Organization:

Non-profit; outreach; cognitive and emotional child development by creative means.

Description:

Care and Learning was founded in 1988 to provide remedial, educational and creative activities to refugee children in Jenin City and refugee camp. C & L has three neighborhood "children's houses" and one "student house" in the refugee camp. The houses are open for 4-5 hours per day, seven days a week. Instructors are regularly updated on educational developments and skills through workshops and an intensive course in the care of children with special needs. Remedial and educational activities are provided through study libraries in each house, where students can study, read, or do their homework with assistance from instructors. Each house has a library and organizes group learning activities which focus on active learning and include homework tutoring, worksheets, and educational games.

Creative activities include

• "making art from junk materials" taught by released prisoners;
• artistic festivals and exhibitions,
• encounters with children from inside Israel,
• trips
• workshops
• games
• The Stone Theater in the refugee camp, which was constructed with the financial part of the "Alternative Nobel Award" given to the Care and Learning Center, serves as a theatrical workshop and performs regularly;
• The Children of the Intifada Choir sings in the Abu Jihad House in the city.

Administrative Structure:

Care and Learning in Haifa consists of a six-member committee and 20 general members and works in cooperation with the committee and staff members in Jenin.

Publications:

• Our Message (newsletter, E)).
• Series of workbooks which accompany a Palestinian reading and writing book (A).
• Soldiers Beat Children, a pamphlet based on interviews with 608 families in the (E)
• Four videos (A):
  • In Defense of Children under Occupation
  • Struggle to Learn
  • Learn to Struggle
  • The Little Oil Lamp (performance of the theater)

Elaine Clark

Educational Network, POB 66, Ramallah, West Bank

tel: 02 995 6230/fax: 02 995 6231 e-mail: eclark@ednet.birzeit.edu