South Hebron Hills
Activities at the kindergarten of Tuwani.
We coordinated with Intisar, the kindergarten teacher that we would visit the kindergarten and help to organize activities.
The kindergarten is at the end of the village, next to the clinic. Not next to or on the way to the school. The parents (or siblings) have to come there especially to bring the children. The building is pleasant to see and is big enough to contain many children and games. The equipment only contains small chairs for the children. In the yard are equipment for games and a sand box.
There are 16 children, Intisar and two women (it seems of the family, and her baby.
The proposed activities include hand coloring, and sand and leaf pasting , as well as a story we have brought.
Intisar suggests carrying out the activity in the hallway, on the floor. We put the children in groups of four, divided bristol pages, and finger colors. We demonstrated the work. Some children had trouble dipping their fingers in color. Glue was something new. Intisar recorded the children’s names on the paintings. In the end, Intisar gathered the children in another room and read from the book which we had brought – “Hot corn.” The children were fascinated. Before finishing we improvised a way to hang the paintings between two windows – so there is already a first decoration in the garden!
This is the first activity. It seems that no similar activities have been carried out in the past, and the type and manner of such activities are also new to Intisar herself. Reading a story also looked like something that had never happened before. We left some equipment (sheets, crystals, glue, finger paints, pastel colors, plasticine dough). We also left the book – the first and only book, in the meantime. Let’s hope it does not get lost, and that many others will be added.
Intisar has prepared a list of essential equipment, which includes tables, wardrobe (or cabinets), shelves, mat. Of course you need additional kindergarden equipment – colors, pages, toys, pencils, books (in Arabic), and much more. We brought, as a start, a kitchenette corner for a game. In the future we will see how it goes. It would be good to add old cooking utensils – you can bring it to this corner.
We will try to involve the villagers to help build the kindergarden. It should not just be Intisar and ourselves . In particular, we should not be perceived as the rich aunts who bring all that is missing. It is also worth introducing Intisar to Huda (from Haham-el-Daraj), with whom we worked quite a bit. Intisar can learn from her how to organize the day of studies, the garden, activities, etc. It will also be a compliment to Huda.
South Hebron Hills
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South Hebron Hills
South Hebron Hills is a large area in the West Bank's southern part.
Yatta is a major city in this area: right in the border zone between the fertile region of Hebron and its surroundings and the desert of the Hebron Hills. Yatta has about 64,000 inhabitants.
The surrounding villages are called Masafer Yatta (Yatta's daughter villages). Their inhabitants subsist on livestock and agriculture. Agriculture is possible only in small plots, especially near streams. Most of the area consists of rocky terraces.Since the beginning of the 1980s, many settlements have been established on the agricultural land cultivated by the Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills region: Carmel, Maon, Susia, Masadot Yehuda, Othniel, and more. Since the settlements were established and Palestinians cultivation areas have been reduced; the residents of the South Hebron Hills have been suffering from harassment by the settlers. Attempts to evict and demolish houses have continued, along with withholding water and electricity. The military and police usually refrain from intervening in violent incidents between settlers and Palestinians do not enforce the law when it comes to the investigation of extensive violent Jewish settlers. The harassment in the South Hebron Hills includes attacking and attempting to burn residential tents, harassing dogs, harming herds, and preventing access to pastures.
There are several checkpoints in the South Hebron Hills, on Routes 317 and 60. In most of them, no military presence is apparent, but rather an array of pillboxes monitor the villages. Roadblocks are frequently set up according to the settlers and the army's needs. These are located at the Zif Junction, the Dura-al Fawwar crossing, and the Sheep Junction at the southern entrance to Hebron.
Updated April 2022
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