Pal-Think & FXB conclude series of training camps

Pal-Think for Strategic Studies concluded a series of training camps within the project “Plant Seeds of Hope for the Children and Youth of Gaza”, implemented in partnership with FXB and through cooperation with CBOs from the governorates of the Gaza Strip, aiming to alleviate frustration and re-disseminating  hope among youth and children.

Since July, Pal-Think has started to implement the first phase of the project, which is five training camps targeting young men and women from partner CBOs in all governorates of the Gaza Strip. The camps include psychological and social support programs to help young people psychologically to restore their mental health to overcome post-traumatic stress disorder after the last attack on Gaza. In addition to that, training them on how to prepare and evaluate community initiatives, and then enhance the capabilities of young people to participate in the second phase of the project, which is the implementation of various community initiatives and activities that work to re-spread life among community members by involving in different community groups in these activities.

Pal-Think concluded these camps with two Recreational Days in the entertainment city of Asda’a in the southern Gaza Strip, in which 100 young men and women from the partner CBOs participated. Where the participants opened the recreational day with musical performances and carried out several different group activities and games aimed at enhancing cooperation and participation also to help them psychologically support.

Hanan Al-Tamimi, a 23-year-old, child activist from the Heritage Protection Society, said: “Despite the usefulness and importance of the training we received, the recreational day was the most wonderful, as we carried out several wonderful activities, got to know colleagues from different associations, and learned about each other’s problems during the war and after it. She added: “As children’s activators, we greatly needed someone to help us with psychological discharge, and today we are all happy”.

Ibrahim Al-Masdar, a twenty-eight-year-old from Al-Aqsa Sports Club, confirmed the importance of the training they received during the camp, such as self-care, psychological reinforcement, and re-spreading hope among  young people and children despite the sorrow. He said, “Also, one of the important things we learned is how to write initiatives and identify needs to contribute to helping youth and children in the Gaza Strip”.

He stated that the program contributed significantly to enabling them to manage psychological stress after the last attack, which would enhance their productivity and efficiency.

In her turn, the 19-year-old activist Esraa Daoud, from the Basma Association for Culture, said that she benefited a lot from the training days and that they were missing such psychological training in the Gaza Strip, as it is exposed to successive wars and crises.

She added: “The most important thing about the recreational day is that it is in a place far from the residential cities in the Gaza Strip. We rarely can spend an entire day in nature in a crowded place like Gaza. I cannot express my happiness today among my colleagues from different institutions. Today I will return my home with a lot of psychological comforts”.