What could go on an action plan to make twinning active?

Why we want to raise awareness -
Publicising the organisation - what is CADFA?
Useful if they can work in lots of universities, not just one
Needs to be repeated as there are always new students (it's easy to lose the message)

COMMUNICATION is key to twinning
Can we have a communication plan?
Regular sending out info to different unis and different student unions
maybe every two months

PLAN FOR HOW TWINNINGS HAPPEN - there are some steps that need to happen in each uni - Make a document
Create training and support material
Facilitate partnerships between different universities, get people to help each other (talk to other unis that have done it)

PUBLICISING twinning a lot at both ends
A lot of people don't know about opportunities (eg university scholarships)

FRESHERS' WEEK - a time to capture an audience

STUDENT UNION - should be a role to promote student twinning
Get the student union involved in the twinning
ideas eg helping to facilitate a cadfa tour

IF STUDENTS COME HERE ON A CADFA TOUR - what do you do next? How do you stay involved? How do you support the process from Palestine itself?

CREATE PALESTINIAN TWINNING SOCIETIES in each university
We need one or two responsible students who are really active in each uni
keep in contact with CADFA
Lots of people want to be involved and think it's a good idea WHEN THEY KNOW
so we need the opportunities to be publicised

Use the STUDENT MAGAZINE to publicise news from Al Quds or personal stories
so the question is, how can someone here get that news?
One way is via friends
Another is more formal - an association/ society in each uni (UK and Pal)

NEED AN ASSOCIATION IN AL QUDS UNIVERSITY to be in touch

How do we REACH NEW PEOPLE

People active in BDS

Presentations - need a presentation about the opportunities, twinning etc at least each year

Plan for WHO TO REACH
Contact International Office at uni
things to do include exchanges, volunteer trips, research

CONSTANT PRESENCE  Good to have somewhere in uni where there is a constant presence, eg notice board/s with things about Palestine (CADFA) so people can find out at any point

Work with different societies - Pal Soc, International Society, Islamic Society, Amnesty International... USE WHAT IS ALREADY THERE ... Getting the message across

NEED STAFF INVOLVED not just students as students move on

SOCIAL MEDIA - need a blog - online presence to be worked on at both ends, something that people can visibly see and is easy to access

Importance of ALUMNI (people who were there before)

We need strong communication between students through facebook - shared blog so people in Al Quds can post things - so you can always go back if you want to keep up to date

Work with Pal Soc, can keep things connected more

CADFA helpful with monthly reminder

**CADFA volunteers** need on-going link with the people involved in each uni

CADFA student links with a rep from each college - maybe with regular meetings and maybe not

Make sure the issues are in the middle of it all - campaigns eg administrative detention

Make posters and activities - visible campaigns/ demos

Student twinning conference

7th February...  From G22 Pearson Building, UCL...

Student twinning conference aims to look at UK-Palestine student twinning:

WHY make student twinning links with Palestine?

HOW to make student twinning links with Palestine

and plans for the next period...

British day in the residential 'Yorkshire Dales' Students Visit 2015

At the beginning of the day we had an English breakfast called borej with eggs, mushrooms, tea, peanut butter, etc and after that we walked around the snow for a few hours. Was really funny saw the people throwing snow balls and playing together

After lunch we had a English presentations about their different life styles around England, some people who talked was from the North of the country and the other people talked about London. For example, Henry talked about the different people from North and South England, like accents and jokes. Emilio talks about his own experience in London, and how the relationships are different between England and Spain. Our college Amina talks about her experience because she sometimes she feels different because originally her family is from Yemen. When she grows up she learn poetry and draw to express her feels through this kind of art. Nick talks about how they lost the meaning of the the family life in Manchester, because a lot of people is living alone.  Julia talks about her experience in SOAS University and Polok talks about her experience in Goldsmith as foreign students in London.  At the end Rob about politics and the knowledge in Britain about Palestine, what his friends and family know about Palestine.

We finished the day with a film about Christians living in Palestine and with a lovely ‘pie’ witch our English friends made for everybody.  

Yellow Team.

One week for the students visit

Hi guys!!

The time is running and we just have one week before meeting our Palestine students friends!
We have prepared everything for the visit! We will go soon to the residential, we will go to different universities, produce some films/videos and have good time together. Of course, we will do workshops and activities about Human Rights and Palestine!

I want to invite everybody to the last students meeting in Cadfa Office London for next Tuesday, 27 of January at 5 pm on the 3rd floor in our building! I hope to see everybody there who is involved in the students visit  because we will answer all the last questions.

 We are so happy to have a really good plan for the students and we will enjoy out time together.

Emilio Sanchez.

EVS Volunteer

Students visit is near!

Hi to everyone!

The week has been really busy. The next students visit will be in two weeks and we are working really hard in the London Cadfa Office. Hopefully, we have a timetable and everyone can see it, and for the people who are joining the project it is much easier to choose the activities that they like, it could on the residential, on the tourism day or support the activities at the different universities, the film days or the conference.

As you can see, the visit will be focus on two different things: First, visiting different universities (North of England and London Universities), meeting the students who are studying there and their Palestine societies, and share their experiences as a students or young professionals; and the second part is to focus on making a small film or video about whatever they want, it could be about Palestine and Human Rights, multiculturalism, freedom, campaigning, etc. and present the video in the last conference.

The visit looks really busy but we will have time to buy souvenirs in London, enjoy some dinner and make friends. We are doing our best to make this week unforgettable! Now we need to continue working hard for the next fortnight and await the Palestinian students.

Emilio Sanchez.

EVS Volunteer.

Students Time

Hi friends!
The students visit is really soon and yesterday we had the first meeting with the Cadfa students' group.

The meeting started yesterday at 5pm, the people arrived to the office and everybody said 'hello and gave short introductions. We started talking about the 'leaders' visit' (December 2014) and remembering beautiful moments with our Palestine friends here in England.
We presented the 'action plan' which we did in the last visit, and we started to work from there. At the begining we talked about the timetable in two parts: - the first  part about residential  that will be in Yorkshire Dales, and the second about the time in London. The people were really interested in the activities, workshops, meetings and events in London because they will be the important people as well as their universities, and they want to make a good job to present to our Palestine student friends.

I think, they will work hard during the next weeks to prepare all these tasks with their universities! And of course me as a volunteer, Cadfa members and partners, and everybody who will be involved! Now, I want to say that the preparation part is good and enjoyable and you can meet very interesting people, but the visit will be fantastic! I hope see you soon!!

Emilio Sanchez.

EVS Volunteer.

Students happy new year

Hello to everyone! Happy new year! and my best whises for your 2015. I hope for peace and justice in Palestine.

The leaders visit (December 2014) in England (Lake Districk and London City) was incredible. I will remember all my life the cold in the north of England and your faces in Winterwonderland, was absolutely  gorgeous.

But for me, the most important issue was that I learnt a lot about Palestine, I met new good friends and we worked hard together. We created a beautiful project for the next visit in January 2015, it wasn't easy, people from different countries and different cultures working together, but the final result was incredible. Although the visit has finished, our memories will be there for all our lives and hopefully the friendly relationships too.

Today we should look to the future. The future for Cadfa students group is 'twinning links between students in London and students in Palestine'  and the next visit is in January 2015.
I am sure that the next visit will be really beautiful, because British leaders are more close now after the last visit. We want to continue enjoying and learning, and of course meeting new people from Palestine and you will have the opportunity to read all in this blog and get involved if you want.

Finally, I want to say  'thank you very much for the presents, the Palestine Scarf is really beautiful' and I hope to see you really soon in England or in Palestine.

Emilio Sánchez García.

EVS Volunteer.