Exchange Students. Swarthghyll Farm, Yorkshire Dales. UK (30/01/15-02/02/15)

 From the Friday 30^th January to Monday 2^nd February, a couple of volunteers, from various parts of the UK, and myself took part in a Residential weekend with Palestinian students touring the UK, funded by CADFA. This took place at Swarthyghll Farm in the Yorkshire Dales.

On the Friday, we arrived at the farm from a longer journey than expected due to the snowy/icy conditions. However, the view of the mountains covered in snow was magnificent.

On the first day we took the chance to greet the Palestinian students, we were allocated into groups and asked to plan to do certain tasks as a group. This was very beneficial, as it obliged us to interact and cooperate; I personally felt this was a great way to get to know each other, especially when there was a language barrier. In addition, we established hopes and ideas for the weekend and on the contrary, we discussed what we did not want happening such as arguments, etc.

At the farm there was no wi-fi  connection or phone signal. Personally, I felt that this was splendid, as everyone talked to each other, played games, socialized and I did not feel that no one was trying to exclude themselves from the group activities by texting or social media.

On the second day, after a good night’s rest, we set out walking in the snowy hills. We played in the snow, throwing snowballs at each other, laughing and having fun. We took lovely pictures of the walk. We felt that the group was starting to connect very well.

Later on that day, a few of the British volunteers and myself presented about Britain. This included British culture, stereotypes, life as a student in the UK, from a British and International perspective and various social problems faced in a city like Manchester. I received feedback from some of the Palestinians who said they found the presentation educational, and that it changed massively their knowledge and perspectives on Britain. This was compared to their prior knowledge they had of Britain.

For dinner (supper), we all ate Shepherd’s Pie, a traditional English food. We also showed the Palestinian Students British etiquette at the table and compared it to what Palestinian etiquette is like. The Palestinians showed us this the following night and we found that the 2 etiquettes were very contradicting.

The following day, Sunday, was the Palestinian day. We started this day by eating “Foul Mudammas” - a traditional meal from the Levant. Later on that day, we listened to all the Palestinian students present to us about a bit of Palestinian culture but mainly political issues in their countries and some personal stories involving these issues.

Personally, I found these presentations life-changing with regards to my perspectives about what is happening in Palestine. This was because I heard stories from Palestinians who are currently residing in Palestine and have had numerous experiences as victims of the political repression in their country. Getting to know the students on a personal level, as I got to during the weekend, made me feel for their cause and obliged to help them fight, in any possible way, for their human rights in their home country.

The following morning, we set off on our different ways, a few Palestinian students came to the University of Leeds (my university). We were all very sad to be departing from each other, especially after a wonderful and amazing weekend where we made some really good friends. I personally feel that this weekend was an amazing, life-changing weekend. I made some good friends during that weekend, of whom I hope to continue to keep in touch with. In my opinion, what made the weekend so special and functional, was: the allocation of groups (a mixture of English and Palestinian Students, living in a big house together in the countryside where co-operation and interaction were a must, and also the effort that CADFA put in to make this weekend work and all the ideas, events and activities that brought us (the British and Palestinian Students) together.

It was a great, cool, fun, adventurous weekend and I would recommend this kind of weekend to my friends, family and colleges at University.

Henry de Thierry

 Studying Arabic & International Relations at the University of Leeds.

 A member of Palestine Solidarity Group, University of Leeds.

Students demostration SOAS

Yesterday 18/02/2015 some friends of the students group in Cadfa made a demonstration and and collected petitions in SOAS University.
They talked with other students about the Hosam and Yazan situation, and about Human Rights, Cadfa and Palestine.

They collected a lot of signatures and today they will bring the envelope with the signatures and a letter about the situation to the Foreign Office in London. We want to say 'Stop Israel taking Palestinian lands and Stop the violence in Palestine' We pray for our friends and we hope that they will be free soon.

SIGN THE PETITION HERE PLEASE! 

Students Visti Report 2015

The students visit in January 2015 as part of the Cadfa project ‘twinning in action’ was an amazing experience for me.  I had the opportunity to improve different skills like English language, organization skills as a group leader, and learn a lot about how difficult it is to be a student in Palestine.

The visit was divided in two parts: The residential in the Yorkshire Dales and in London.

The first part of the visit during the residential was really intense. We were living together in a bunk house, sharing everything. Cadfa divided the days into different topics - a ‘British day’ and ‘Palestinian day’. During these two days we had some talks about the culture in both countries, universities, lifestyle, human rights and differences between England and Palestine. Also we saw some documentaries and we tasted typical food from these countries. We had some time to enjoy the snow outside the house, walk around the mountains, play games and discuss with our colleagues. 

The second part of the visit was running in London. The first day was for tourism, hopefully everybody enjoyed Big Ben and the London Eye, also Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Street. The second day in London was a ‘University day’ Cadfa divided the big group into small groups and the Palestinian students visited different  universities including  SOAS, UCL, Birkbeck, Goldsmith and King's College. They enjoyed it a lot and they could feel like an English students for one day.  The other days during the weekend we were in  Dragon Hall Community Centre doing a film about ‘Palestine and Human Rights’ and visiting different institutions; Amnesty International, a school in Hackney and a Mosque in East London.  Of course, they had time to enjoy the Tate and British Museum, shopping in Oxford Street and walking around the city.

Emilio Sanchez. 
London EVS Volunteer

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.