Across Borders Project

Section I - Introduction

Connecting People Across Borders

Palestinian Refugees - A brief history

Palestinian refugees - A Silent Voice

Section II - Project Summary

1. Dheisheh already has an ideal location where the Across Borders Project can be launched - the Ibdaa children's cultural center. Ibdaa provides a site that is accessible after working hours, already strongly attended by both boys and girls, and well supervised.
2. Dheisheh refugee camp is the only refugee camp with its own website (http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/9836/dheisheh/). Dheisheh's website was created in May 1998 by Muna Muhaisen, an American-Palestinian journalist, who lives in the camp and will work as the Camp Co-ordinator for the project. The website includes on-line testimony by refugee children about their childhood in the camp and the villages that their families came from in 1948 which will be dramatically expanded through the Across Borders Project, including an Arabic language website and professional website training and design.
3. Dheisheh refugee camp has several camp residents with a basic level of Internet experience. The Internet is in daily use at the Ibdaa cultural center that will provide a base for training and a location for running the project. These internet-literate camp residents will be an asset to the Across Borders Project and can help make it a success.

The BZU Computer Center will act as focal point for developing systems for training and capacity building within the local Dheisheh refugee community in the use of computer technology and the internet.

The camp will produce a bi-lingual website which will contain testimonies and oral history from camp residents, an online photographic gallery of camp-life produced by camp residents, and a bulletin board. The website will enable communication between the camp and the international community.

Dheisheh camp will act as a pilot project for extending the project to other camps in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. All of the camps which come online will form a refugee ring enabling a virtual tour of Palestinian refugee camps.

Section III - Project Description

The project consists of four phases; infrastructure and personnel development, education and training, development of website and "refugee ring".

Phase I - Facilities and Personnel

In Dheisheh, the Ibdaa center will be equipped with a 15-computer laboratory which will be used for on-going training and implementation of the project. These computers will be connected on an internal network and directly connected by lease-line with the Birzeit University server with 24-hour connection and a fast, reliable server. In addition, potential trainers and a technical supervisor will be selected through a process of applications and interviews for the Internet center.

The Dheisheh center will fulfill several functions. Firstly, it will act as a focal point for the development of the Internet presence of the camp on the WWW. The center will co-ordinate the process of documentation and oral testimonies which will form the backbone of the camp website (see below for more details).

Secondly, the Dheisheh center will continue the process of increasing the computer and Internet literacy of the camp as a whole. This will occur through the continued offering of courses to camp residents and the close collaboration with local schools and training centers.

Phase II - Education and Training

A key requirement for the success of the project is the development of computer literacy in general and internet literacy in particular within the selected refugee camps. Without this literacy, the project will not be representative of the camps as a whole and it will be difficult to explain to the participants in the project the potential benefits and importance of the project. Dheisheh is ideally placed to begin the project because there is a small group of people who are familiar with the Internet and who will be points of support for the initial phase.

This phase of the project will involve ongoing education and training on the use of the Internet and computer technology. This training will be held in conjunction with Birzeit University's Continuing Education Department which has a long history in community outreach education. Birzeit University will train a group of trainers from the camp as well as supervise the courses following the initial training period. The aim will be to make the project self-supporting through on-going training and courses in the camp beyond the scope of the project

An important aspect of the project is the visibility of computer technology through hands-on experience, for this reason the project will organize several open-days based on the Birzeit University Internet Festival, which was the first of its kind in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. These Internet Festivals aim to introduce people to the Internet through short demonstrations by experienced professionals. Camp residents are given an opportunity to use the Internet in an assisted and informal manner. The Festivals are expected to take place in conjunction with local schools and training centers and the participation of local refugee bodies.

All of the educational activities will be structured around the Project with the aim of encouraging camp residents to use the Internet to express themselves and communicate directly with the world.

Phase III - Camp website

The central feature of the Across Borders Project will be the establishment of a website for each camp. The website will aim to be the voice of the camp and will include the following sections:

• Online Testimonies: Camp residents will be encouraged to write about their personal experiences of life in the camp which will form the basis of an online testimonies section of the website. Local schools will be approached to encourage students to work on collecting oral history testimonies from the older generation of the camp.
• Online Photo Gallery: Based on a similar highly successful project in Ein al Hilwe camp in Lebanon, children of the camp will be invited to participate in a workshop which will teach them the basics of photography. They will then use the skills gained to photograph the camp through their eyes. These photographs by children of the camp will form the basis of an online photographic gallery of life in the camp.
• E-mail and Bulletin Board access: Visitors to the camp website will be able to leave private messages for camp residents via email or leave public messages on an online bulletin board to which camp residents will also be able to contribute.

Phase IV - Expansion of the project

The same process involved in the first 3 phases will be repeated for a camp in the Gaza Strip. This will begin within 6 months of the inception of the project. The two initial camps are envisioned as the beginning of a project to place all the camps in the West Bank and Gaza on-line on a Refugee Ring. The project is also planned to involve selected camps in Jordan and Lebanon. Thus with access to e-mail and direct communication between camps, it will be possible for families who have been separated for 50 years, to reconnect with one another via their camp websites. All of the websites which eventually come on-line will be connected to each other via the Refugee Ring which will enable Internet surfers to embark on a virtual tour of Palestinian refugee camps.

Section IV - Project Aims

Voice of the Community

By utilizing the latest in internet technology and combining the talents of Birzeit University and other local institutions, Palestinian refugees living in camps will be able to directly communicate with the world on an unprecedented scale. Most importantly, this communication will be coming directly from refugees themselves, not mediated by other interests.

Educating and Informing

The camp websites will revolutionize both the self-perception of refugees themselves, and their ability to portray their situation to the international community. It also promises to increase the advocacy efforts of refugees and their representative bodies through raising their voice on an international stage.

The websites and the refugee ring will play an important educational role for the international community. The ability for people to directly correspond with the refugee population in the camps will increase the understanding of their situation on a worldwide level. School groups in Europe or the US for example, will be able to directly correspond with their counterparts in a refugee camp.

Crossing Borders

In today's political climate the issue of freedom of movement is of crucial concern for Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza. It is virtually impossible for Palestinians to travel between the two areas as permits are rarely granted by the Israeli authorities. Many students from Gaza are forced to study "illegally" in the West Bank and many have not seen their families for years.

This issue of freedom of movement is repeated on a larger scale when we examine the situation between countries in which refugees are living. It is almost impossible for refugees living in Lebanon to visit relatives in the West Bank and Gaza Strip or vice-versa. Many of these families have been divided for 50 years and yet due to political considerations have been unable to see each other for decades.

The virtual travel over borders which the Across Borders Project will create, will have a tremendous impact on the self-perception and confidence of the refugee community as a whole. Many analysts of Palestinian society have identified the increasing division of the community along regional lines and the consequent narrowing of political vision leading to the exclusion of refugee rights from the concerns of Palestinian negotiators. The Across Borders Project will facilitate in re-asserting the refugee community as a central axis of Palestinian society.

Capacity Building and Sustainability

The project has a strong emphasis on training a group of people to continue the project beyond the initial period. A group of camp residents will be trained by Birzeit University to offer courses at Ibdaa in basic internet use, HTML design and Graphic Design for camp residents. This will ensure the on-going sustainability of the project and strengthen the capacity of Ibdaa to continue this type of work.

Acquiring Vocational Skills

The establishment of an internet center in camps will also bring important technical and vocational skills to camp residents. In conjunction with local schools, the increased ability and familiarity with computers and related technology which will accompany the introduction of these centers will increase future options for Palestinian refugees.

Section V - What we need

Equipment

Staff

Training Costs