300 kids!

Today MwB trainees Sa'da and Samar gave a music workshop for 300 children (age 5-13) and their mothers from the Bethlehem area.


Both women work in the Ghirass Cultural Center*, which hosted the event. Sa'da is a librarian in the center's library for children, Samar is the supervisor of the adult literacy program & the educational toys library program.

During their work in the center and the outreach program in the villages Battir, al-Khader and Zakaria, they taught the children songs from the MwB training. Today finally all the children could sing these songs together!

Making movements to the music

The children are copying the movements from Samar and Sa'da

Sa'da clapping with the kids

Sign to be silent: Hand in the air!!!

*Ghirass Cultural Center is an educational, cultural and leisure center that gives the children of Bethlehem district a safe place to learn, play, meet friends, develop and grow into young adults. It addresses the needs of the children of Bethlehem district, from birth to 16 years. The center is affiliated to Bethlehem Arab Society for Rehabilitation.
The center was established in 1994 for two main reasons:

• The need for a safe place to learn and play became apparent during the first Intifada (uprising against the Israeli occupation) where the children were the innocent victims of the closure of schools and curfews.

• Ghirass was also set up due to the prevailing academic philosophy at the time and the lack of cultural education in the schools. The Center recognized the importance of giving the children of Bethlehem an opportunity to learn their traditional music, dance and handicrafts and to gain knowledge of Palestinian culture, history, literature and ecology.

(This text was copied from the website of Ghirass Center)

Thank you Madeleine for making the pictures!