Dear friends

AUTUMN 2004

Dear friends,

We have had quite a busy and rather disturbing summer. Disturbing, because of the great inconvenience caused by the builders next door. Noise, dust and dirt everywhere, but worse of all, is the fact that the children have nowhere to play. Their minute play area has been taken almost completely, and the children are prevented from going outdoors because of the frequency of lorries and bulldozers, coming in and out, endangering their lives. We are praying hard for the day, when this entire struggle will be part of an oblivious past. To look on the bright side, the last three months have been quite fruitful. Just after the end of the school term, we organized a three-day training course for our staff members, in first aid techniques, child's psychology and crisis management. The course was funded by the Welfare Consortium. It was extremely beneficial, since it opened up many discussions concerning some of the difficult cases we have at the school.

Al-Shurooq Summer School Camp

Al-Shurooq held its 22nd summer school camp from the 2nd to the 22nd of July. We had 20 children participating and enjoying its many different activities. They visited parks, had long walks, did a bit of music and swam in the local pool. However, the highlight of the camp was the day they spent in a water park in Tel Aviv, which ended with a stroll on the beach of Jaffa. For the majority of our children, it was their first experience on a beach and for the first time they were able to feel the sand, pick the shells and listen to the splashing of the waves.

Blind Children For Peace

In our joint project with the European Blind Union and the Israel National Association of Parents of Visually Impaired Children, the group's second trip was to Paris from the 2nd till the 9th of July. They had an eventful week, visiting the Château de Versailles, the Eiffel Tower, a boat trip on the river Seine, and the highlight was the day they spent at Euro-Disney. The Mayor of Paris warmly received the group at the City Hall and expressed his good wishes for both peoples and hoped for a better future. For more information about the project, please visit to the projects' website at www.ebupeace.org

The Mayor of Paris with the group at the City Hall

Beginning of another Scholar Year

The new scholar year began August 29th, 2004. Two of our girls were transferred to other institutions. Aya, 13 years old, was transferred to a vocational training center in the Kalandia refugee camp where her family lives. Also Abeer, 8, some of you might remember her story, she was a normal girl in her first grade going to school when she was run over by a car. She had brain damage and lost her vision. We did try to help her but the damage was beyond the services we could offer and sadly she was unable to fit in our programme. That made it possible for us to admit two new children, Razan and Abdullah. Razan, 5, totally blind, comes from a village near Hebron. She is the eldest of three daughters in the family. She is a delicate child, petite for her age but extremely bright. Abdullah, 4, totally blind, originally from a village near Nablus. His parents are divorced and he lives in a rented room with his mother in Bethlehem. According to the mother, the boy had lost his vision at the age of two due to constant physical abuse from his father's family. The Ministry of Social Affairs transferred Abdullah to Al-Shurooq three weeks ago, and he's doing well socializing with the other children, although he tends to become quite aggressive at times and that's totally understandable considering what he went through.


Abdulla	Razan

Integration

Two of our former students, integrated a few years back, have graduated from high school this year and have been admitted into university. Hadeel Shehadeh from Hebron and Abdul- Rahman S'eed from Ramallah have successfully passed their secondary exams with excellent results. We are so proud of their achievement and wish them all the best.

Library and Braille Book Production Unit

Once again we are encountering obstacles in this regard but this time it's the curricula. Since the Palestinian curricula are new and constantly being reiterated, we find ourselves having to do the same with our Braille books, producing and iterating accordingly. This tends to become labour consuming and costly, but since we are under an obligation to meet the demands of the students, we have no alternative but to rewrite parts of the curricula again.

Arrival of the Peace Cyclists

Saturday August 14th was an historic day, as cyclists from all over England commenced "The Peace Cycle", a cycle ride from London to Jerusalem. The cyclists left Hyde Park with a farewell rally attended by hundreds of supporters and were joined en-route by cyclists from all over Europe. They passed through Paris, Geneva, Rome and Athens, then flew to Amman and cycled again from Amman to Jerusalem via Nazareth, Jenin, Tulkarem, Ramallah, Abudis and Bethlehem. The aim of the Peace Cycle was to raise funds for humanitarian aid in Palestine, to publicise the truth about the Israeli occupation and the separation wall and also to support a just settlement that will enable all people of the region to live in peace. Dr. Ali Dabbagh, a Palestinian ophthalmologist at the Royal Oldham Hospital-England, was one of the cyclists. He raised money for three charities, Al-Shurooq being one of them.
We were honoured and proud to receive some of cyclists at Al-Shurooq last week, especially Dr. Dabbagh, his wife Sana', their 12 year old son Sami who joined the cyclists, and Sana's sister Sahar.

One Italian cyclist, an artist working with the Italian Government, impressed by the work done at Al-Shurooq, decided to stay for five days with us. He did some clay modeling with the children and took them each for a bike ride! They were very sad to say goodbye Girolamo and hoped to see him again some day.

Some members of “The Peace Cycle” with our children at Al-Shurooq

Land Project

Our land project is going quite well. We are forever grateful to all of you who are faithfully and tirelessly trying your best to help us meet the cost. So far, we have received approximately fifty thousand US Dollars, which we have paid as an installment and we still have to pay another hundred. With the help of God and your kind generosity, dedication and efforts, I am quite certain that we shall achieve our goal.

Thank you and God bless you all.