Pal-Think begins its community education programme under the «Promoting Democratic Education» project

Pal-Think for Strategic Studies carried out the first activity of the community-education programme within the “project of strengthening democratic education”, funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The trainees completed the training-of-trainers course (TOT) on topics that took up the concepts of peace and tolerance, how to create leading, pioneering youth, the conduct of lobbying and advocacy campaigns, and training in presentation skills. The trainees were distributed into 5 groups to begin carrying out 15 awareness and educational activities and pass on their experience to their young peers in cooperation with several grassroots institutions in all the governorates of the Gaza Strip. The middle-area group set about carrying out the first activity, titled “Human rights”, in cooperation with the Maghazi Cultural Center Association, with the attendance of 21 young men and women among the university graduates of the middle area.

The meeting was opened by Abdel Rahim al-Salmi, graduate of the (TOT) course, who thanked Pal-Think for Strategic Studies for its distinguished efforts and its investment in the Palestinian young person, affirming the importance of the training-of-trainers course he received and its great effect in building his character and making him able to deliver a workshop before an audience. He spoke of the correct concept of human rights, made clear that rights are wrested, not gifted, and spurred the youth to demand their rights; he then spoke of the generations of human rights and the international covenants that spoke of human rights and the treaties of civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights.

The workshop was continued by Wissam Abu Awad, graduate of the (TOT) course, taking up the topic of women's rights in the international covenants, and she opened the door of dialogue and discussion to the attendees: there was deep dialogue and interaction between the participants and the trainers, with the attendees affirming the importance of women's rights and their advocacy of women at all levels.

The workshop was concluded by the coordinator of the “strengthening democratic education” project at Pal-Think for Strategic Studies, Ms Sally al-Sammak, who listened to the attendees' assessment and the extent of their benefit from the topic taken up in the workshop. The young people affirmed the importance of such topics and trainings that contribute to building youth's culture, their ideas, and their understanding of their positive role in society — helping them walk the correct path toward finding some suitable solutions for youth issues in Palestinian society.