Article

An article was published on www.silwanic.net
You can read about the music workshop in Dheisheh camp for children from Silwan and Dheisheh at the following link:

English:
http://silwanic.net/?p=2147

Arabic:
http://silwanic.net/?p=1958

Music workshop in Batir

Today was the first music workshop given by three members of the new MwB women group from Batir: Anaya, Rena and Hanan.
They did a wonderful job with the seven boys, age 12-14, that performed dabke, a traditional Palestinian dance, before the workshop started.
The workshop leaders made music with the children while singing, using body percussion and sticks. They finished the workshop with the "who is the leader" game, in which the children take turns in being the leader and showing the others movements and rhythms, while the child in the middle has to guess who is the leader.
Although the boys were a bit hesitating before we began the workshop ("what do you want to do with us....?") they immediately joined once we started, had lots of fun and asked us when the next workshop would be!

making sounds and rhythms with sticks

Playing the "who is the leader" game

Talents in Batir!

Today I was very lucky: Anaya, Rena and Hanan from the new MwB women group invited some very talented youth from their village Batir to share their traditional culture with me.
Seven boys, age 12-14, danced dabke, a traditional Palestinian dance, and Esra' , a young girl, recited the poem "Afwan Fairuz". The poem is about the longing for Jerusalem.
Batir, the village where Esra' lives, is only ten kilometers away from Jerusalem, but she and many other Palestinians are not allowed to enter this city.
She recited the poem with lots of emotion and musicality in her voice and one of the women in the audience told me she got the shivers while listening to her beautiful voice.

Esra' reciting the poem

The dabke of the boys was very impressive. They worked in a very mature way with each other and showed different dance techniques.

Boys from Batir dancing Dabke in the
Batir Center for Women and Children

Fabienne van Eck
Local Project Manager

SOS Kindergarten Bethlehem

Today was the first workshop for children given by three women from the new MwB group in Palestine. Ameera, Arwa and Sereen gave a fun workshop for children in the SOS Kindergarten Bethlehem in which they danced, sang and played rhythms. They did a wonderful job and the children were very excited and asking for more....

Sereen gives every child an imaginary water drop
to dance the 'shower dance'

Playing rhythms with sticks

Saying your name while making music

Saying your name while making music

Arwa makes the balloon bigger and smaller, while the
children follow the movements with their arms

Workshop for children from Silwan and Dheisheh in Dheisheh Camp

On Wednesday March 24, eleven students from the music project in Silwan (www.madaasilwan.org) visited Dheisheh Camp to join a music workshop given by Anas, Ahmad, Bassam, Hisham, Mohammad and Yousef. Diya helped preparing but couldn't join the workshop because of his exams in school.

It was the first time the children from Silwan and Dheisheh met and actually the first time for the Silwan children to go to the Bethlehem area.
Two children from Dheisheh spoke about their life in the camp, and two children from Silwan explained to the Dheisheh youth how it is to live in Silwan.

Talking about Dheisheh Refugee Camp

The Silwan children sang and played their favorite song "I Love you Silwan" (Ba7ebek ya Silwan) and the children from Dheisheh performed rap songs that they wrote themselves.

The Dheisheh workshop leaders organized a great workshop with different musical games and songs in which the children were motivated to work together as one group and to communicate and listen to each other in a respectful manner. All the children were excited and very active during the different activities.
On the way back to Silwan, the children practiced their new beat-box skills which they learned from the Dheisheh children and they couldn't wait to get off the bus to tell their friends and family about the trip.


We hope to visit Dheisheh camp soon again to let the children meet each other.
But of course our dream is to bring the Dheisheh children to Silwan and Jerusalem one day....


For more pictures, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/madaa.silwan/TripToDheisheh#5452541731228489122

Music workshop leader training (February 2010)

Foto report of the music trainings in Bethlehem and Jenin

Training February

During the last week of February, Otto de Jong and Marijke Smedema came to Palestine to give music workshops in different places:

JENIN: Otto de Jong from MwB gave a one-day training to 17 music teachers and musicians in Jenin, in the "Jenin Creative Cultural Center", organised by Yousef Awad, director of the center. During the break, the participants from the North of Palestine played and sang beautiful Arabic music for the Dutch trainers, who were very impressed by their sounds. We hope we can continue in Jenin to exchange more ideas and music!

SILWAN: Otto de Jong from MwB gave a workshop in Silwan, in "Madaa Silwan Creative Center". The workshop focused on how to use music when you are working with groups of children. The group was a mixed group, with musicians and non-musicians, from Silwan, Beit Safafa and the North. All the participants are active in the Silwan community and they will apply the MwB skills on their work with the children.

BETHLEHEM 1: Otto de Jong and Marijke Smedema from MwB gave two workshops for the trainees that started more than one year ago in al-Azzeh camp, Handele Center. The trainees come from Aida camp, al-Azzeh camp and Dheisheh camp. The trainees showed each other their new developed material and learned new songs and dances from the trainers. After one of the workshops, they gave a performance on the guitar, 'ud and keyboard, guided by their talented music teacher Murad Naseem.

BETHLEHEM 2: Otto de Jong and Marijke Smedema from MwB gave a week long training to a new group of women from the Bethlehem area. The training was held in al-Awda Center, al-Azzeh camp and was coordinated by Ahmad al-Azzeh, director at the al-Awda Center and the non-violence program director at Holy Land Trust.
The participants come from Dheisheh camp, al-Azzeh camp, Aida camp and the village of Battir. The participants are working with children in different fields, such as theater, school, summer camp and kindergarten. During the training, they learned new skills to use during their work with the children and they exchanged ideas with each other and the trainers.