Pal-Think concludes a series of training camps

Pal-Think for Strategic Studies concluded a series of training camps within the project “Restoring hope to the children and youth of Gaza”, which it implements in partnership with FXB and through cooperation with communal institutions from the governorates of the Gaza Strip, with the goal of easing the condition of frustration and re-instilling hope in the souls of youth and children of both sexes.

Since the month of July, Pal-Think began carrying out the project's first stage, namely five training camps targeting young men and women from the partner institutions in all the governorates of the Gaza Strip. The camps comprise psychosocial-support programmes and programmes to help the youth with psychological release and the recovery of their psychological health to overcome post-traumatic stress disorder after the latest aggression on Gaza — in addition to training them on how to prepare communal initiatives and evaluate them; then strengthening the youth's capacities to take part in the project's second stage, namely carrying out various communal initiatives and activities that work to re-instil life among society's members through engaging society's different categories in these activities.

Pal-Think concluded these camps with two recreational days in the Asdaa amusement city in the south of the Gaza Strip, in which 100 young men and women from the partner institutions took part. The participants opened the recreational day with musical segments and carried out several different collective activities and games aiming to strengthen cooperation and participation and to help them with psychological release.

The children's animator Hanan al-Tamimi, 30 years old, from the Heritage Protection Association, said: “Despite the benefit and importance of the training we obtained, the recreational day is the most wonderful — we carried out several wonderful activities, got to know colleagues from different associations, and got to know each other's problems during the war and after it.”

She added: “We as children's animators greatly needed someone to help us with psychological release, and praise God, today we are all happy.”

As for Ibrahim al-Masdar, 28 years old, from the Al-Aqsa Sports Club, he affirmed the importance of the trainings they received during the initiative, such as self-care, psychological reinforcement, and re-instilling hope in the souls of youth and children despite the pain.

He said: “Also among the important things we learned is how to write initiatives and determine needs, to contribute to helping the youth and children in the Gaza Strip.”

He reported that the programme contributed greatly to enabling them to manage psychological pressures after the escalation, a matter that will strengthen their productivity and efficiency.

For her part, the activist Israa Dawoud, 19 years old, from the Basma Association for Culture, said she benefited much from the training days, and that they had been missing such psychological trainings in the Gaza Strip, it being subjected to successive wars and crises.

She added: “The most important thing about the recreational day is that it is in a place far from the cities in Gaza — rarely can we spend a whole day in the embrace of nature in a place as densely populated as Gaza. I cannot express my happiness today among my colleagues from different institutions; today I will return to my home with much psychological ease.”