Tuesday, June 23, 2015

‘Yalla, Bye!’

Ten weeks has flown by, and as stressful and exhausting as living in a place as tense as Jerusalem is, I am really going to miss it. Every time we leave the house here, there is some kind of noteworthy event or incident, but the experience has been invaluable and extremely worthwhile. In only ten weeks,the politics and the struggle here have become personal and extremely important to us all. I feel that the place itself holds a very special place in our hearts. Some of my most memorable experiences and often the most interesting conversations have happened during my time at my volunteer placement, Youth Development Department in East Jerusalem. Working with this amazing organisation has been an immense pleasure, and I am really excited that the work I have been doing is sustainable and useful for the organisation.

Lasting impact: life through a portal


One of the first things we had to consider when arriving was how we were going to make a sustainable and valuable contribution to YDD. Ten weeks is not a long time at all, and we were aware of this as we planned out our schedule and timeframe of goals and objectives. One thing we were really surprised about was that YDD did not have a website. To me, this was really quite remarkable – it was a reminder that we were far from the UK, where everyone and everything has a powerful online presence. YDD is a well established very active group in Jerusalem, and until we arrived its only outreach was through word of mouth and a paper leaflet distributed across communities in Jerusalem.

We quickly agreed that we would dedicate a chunk of time towards building and creating an effective and informative website, which would allow accessibility to so many more people – both locally and internationally. At first this task seemed very daunting (I have never built a website before and I am by no means a ‘technical whizzkid’!) and seemed a bit dull, which was a personal challenge to overcome. Trying to figure out ‘coding’ and ‘domain names’ when I was struggling to even upload pictures was at times extremely frustrating, but once I got the hang of it, it became much more enjoyable. I also found that the more I got to know about YDD and my colleagues here, the more determined I was to ensure the organisation and its incredibly important work should be widely promoted by designing a quality and interesting website.

In order to avoid a boring and text heavy website, we spent several weeks going out into Jerusalem and meeting some of the individuals and organisations that have benefitted from YDD’s programmes. We gathered individual testimonies, stories and took pictures and videos, all to make the website more eye-catching and attention grabbing. We reflected the stark statistics about the difficult situation affecting the youth here in Jerusalem in some info-graphics to help visualise the reality and inject a bit of colour into the site.



Palestine has become very easy to disengage from  if you rely on the international media, but when you learn of real individuals and their experiences, I think it becomes much easier to relate and empathise.  The personality of YDD and its beneficiaries was something I was particularly focused on throughout the entire process.Some of these trips into the community were very moving. We met a young man names Eyad who had benefited from one of YDD economic programmes. He is the same age as me, but our lives couldn’t be more different. He is a full time butcher, and thanks to YDD training him and helping him secure equipment and premises, he is now the main breadwinner of the family. His father is elderly and sick and his only elder brother is in jail –one of Palestine’s 5820 political prisoners – and so Eyad is single handedly supporting the family. Not only this, but he is working hard enough to put his five sisters through university; when asked about this he only smiles and says it is his main priority so that they can have a better future and not struggle as he had to. When I asked about his hopes and dreams for his future he replied ‘My dreams are not for myself – they are all about my family. I hope for my father to get better and my brother to be released from prison and to return to us. I hope that my sisters and brothers can continue their education, and if all of this happens then I can be happy. ‘  

I was blown away by his humble nature and dedicated work ethic, and continue to be so with almost every story and person I have met through YDD.  These kinds of stories are the absolute essence of what makes YDD such a vital part of Jerusalem’s youth work and I have aimed to capture this true essence of YDD, as we share the stories of Palestinians around Jerusalem.

Lift off!


To launch our website, and the new brochure we designed alongside it, we decided YDD deserved a launch event. It was primarily a ‘website launch’ but also a general celebration of YDD’s work in and around Jerusalem. We booked a hall, organised the food and invited local organisations and representatives from UNICEF, the UN and Save the Children. We put on a short presentation about YDD and the importance of a website and then held a question and answer session with the staff. We were all a bit nervous – not least because of the language barrier that follows us around everywhere here – but it was a big success!




Although at the start of my ten weeks, building a website seemed more like a chore than an exciting contribution, I am so excited and proud to have created such an integral tool for an organisation such as YDD in 2015. The website it looking great, and hopefully will assist with reaching more young Jerusalemites who can benefit from our work. Having a social media presence, particularly in a place like Palestine where service delivery and available help is so often disrupted as a result of the occupation, is invaluable.  Now, anyone anywhere can look YDD up and find out all about their incredible dedication to improving the lives of young people around Jerusalem.

http://youthdevelopmentdepartment.com


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