COVID19: Education & Food for Palestinian Children

"Children are great imitators. So give them something great to imitate."              - Annonymous

At TYO, we strive to provide children and youth with a safe space to learn and grow. In order to help facilitate this learning, we rely heavily on the university-aged youth volunteers to support the work done by our teachers and international interns. These volunteers become real role models in the classrooms for the children who come to TYO and therefore, we aim to pick some of the most outstanding volunteers to join our program. Over the last year, we have been interviewing volunteers as part of our Youth In Focus series on our blog. We want to share some highlights from these interviews as a reminder of the people on-the-ground who help us bring smiles to our children: 

"My interest in volunteering at TYO stemmed from my positive experiences as a child beneficiary at TYO. When I was younger I used to attend classes at TYO. I was in a bad situation and frustrated at that time, but TYO opened new doors for me to have my hope in life back again. At the time I really appreciated that TYO accepted me as a girl. I just wanted to be able to play the same as boys, and was so thankful to find TYO in a culture that doesn’t allow the girls to play out of the homes as boys do" - Mayyada

"I’ve been volunteering at TYO since 2008 and keep coming back because I feel the program really adds to my skills. Aside from gaining skills to benefit my own future, I also really enjoy volunteering at TYO because it gives me the opportunity to serve my community." - Rakan

"What really caught my eye about [the program] was the chance to work with disadvantaged children from within my community. I like the idea of being able to make a positive impact on my community while at the same time being able to train myself for the future to be a good father." - Sameer

Prior to coming to TYO, I’d only been exposed to academic life and had never taken on a real leadership role, but being at TYO I was able to see that not only was I contributing, but I was surrounded by many other women who were working hard to improve their community. Through this, I really began to see how important my role is as a woman and that I can make a difference." - Mari

Stay tuned for next report, and on behalf of refugee children and youth of Nablus, thanks for your continued support!