Hope

We visited some really incredible organizations today. Barbara has already posted about the great Dar Al-Kalima School and Health and Wellness Center: www.daralkalima.org

We then listened to a presentation by a young man who works for Badeel, the main research organization that focuses on the rights and plight of Palestinian refugees. Check out this site! http://www.badil.org/

We then heard from Wi'am Peace and Resolution Center director Mr. Zoughbi Zoughbi. Wi'am means compassionate understanding in Arabic; he also related it to the Greek word Agape. The towering presence of the separation wall (about half a block from Wi'am's office) from the organization's rooftop is intimidating and depressing, but his accounts of peaceful resolutions among neighbors, family members, and his role in promoting the Palestinian cause internationally was inspirational. http://www.alaslah.org/

Barbara has blogged a little bit about Hebron and the Dheisheh refugee camp. I want to share some impressions and some stories that our guide shared with us, but I want to do them justice in a separate posting. Here is the UN Relief Work Administration website about Dheisheh: http://www.unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=113 and this website looks like an interesting outreach within the camp: http://www.dheisheh-ibdaa.net/dheisheh.htm

I titled this blog "Hope" because that was the sensation that many of us commented on as we reflected this evening. The organizations we are meeting help provide hope to people here, and they give us hope for peaceful, just resolution for indigenous residents in this land.

More soon.