The Community Service Center (CSC)
On Sunday we started our voluntary work here. We visited the university hospital of An-Najah. We had a glimpse in several departments of the hospital, like dialysis, oncology and pediatry and talked to some of the doctors and other employees. The hospital has, as we saw it, very modern equipments, still it seemed that there were more doctors and nurses than patients.
Wednesday we went on a trip with the coordinator of the housing program. We headed the Jenin-Road to the surrounding villages. Our destination was a family house that was in very bad condition. The people living there (a woman and their three children) had to sleep on the floor. The walls weren’t plastered, water was leaking through the ceiling, the entire electric laid open and to crown it all there was mold in one of the rooms. The mother showed us their washing machine, which was broken because the cables were bare open and catched fire. So there was also no opportunity to do the laundry anymore. This family really was needy to have proper housing. On our way back it started to rain, so again taking photos became obsolete. We stopped at an old military yard, which now is an education center for agriculture. Pupils from 10th to 12th class get to know the basics of modern agriculture there, and are also prepared for their potential studies in this measure. They have greenhouses there, where they plant herbs, vegetables, roses and strawberries. We also saw grounds for fish farming. The carps are helt for training in water-culture and the consumption, not for breeding purposes. At the end all of us was giving a rose from the own cultivation. Sebastian & Kerstin.
 While Philip was taking care of wheelchairs and Sebastian overlooked a planned funding-application for a project to strengthen the role of women in the rural areas, I went with the Coordinator of the Learning Support to various schools in Nablus. Boys Schools, Girls Schools, but there are quite mixed-sex facilities.

[Kerstin]

Together with coordinators and volunteers of the CSC we went to Hebron. The purpose of this trip was a ceremony in which also the Community Center was honored for its work. The next day we were on our way to the town and the attractions of Hebron. On the market stalls along the street leading to the Ibrahimi Mosque, you can buy all sorts of handmade Palestinian souvenirs. In about 3 meters above the street, like a ceiling, a chain-link fence stretched. We were told that the fence shall catch the trash that Israeli settlers who live in the neighboring houses throw down. At the end of the alley a turnstile with military escort leads to the Ibrahimi Mosque. After a brief safety check we were allowed to enter the mosque. To the building belongs a synagogue on the other hand, that was visited by two-thirds of our group afterwards.

[Sebastian]

On Tuesday I had the great privilege to be led competent and dedicated for a wholly day through the Al-Quds University in Abus Dis near Jerusalem. When talking to the representative of the Department of contacts with Germany, I found out that she experienced similar things as I do, even if she has stayed much longer in Palestine. The exchange with the head of the gender department that also is responsible for strengthen women’s rights was a bit disappointing. It was the same with my questions at the study center for social work students within a clinic built-up of the university. No one could really give me answer, what is their exactly work to do.
The campus in Abu Dis is really nice, but the construction of Israelis also aims to cut it further and further from the rest of the environment. Al-Quds has just as Birzeit a museum on the campus. In Al-Quds it is for the Palestinians political prisoners and their history and situation. Most frightening for me personally, was that there are dead prisoners and thus tombs without a names (only numbers), because no one knows who these people are, so not even their families know where that person is buried. On the way back I still stopped in Ramallah. Unfortunately I was not granted meeting Raja Shehadeh. His human rights organization “Al-Haq – Law in the Service of Man,” whose aim is to deal with international law in the occupied territories is also located in Ramallah. [Kerstin]