MiniActive | The Jerusalem Intercultural Center

MiniActive – Finishing Another Year of Studying Hebrew

This year, on April 16, as the Hebrew University went on Passover break and just before Ramadan, we finished yet another year of studying Hebrew, together with the Lissan – “Medabrot Ivrit” (Women Speaking Hebrew) organization.

Intisar speaking to a full auditorium

Some 200 women from MiniActive, including 50 teenage girls from MiniActive Youth, took weekly Hebrew classes, on 3 levels – beginning, intermediate and advanced – throughout the year.

Women with their certificates

MiniActive Director Intisar Qaraeen spoke at the graduation ceremony. Graduates proudly came with their families, and filled Hebrew University’s large auditorium.

Auditorium full with graduates and families

Congratulations to all graduates!

Here’s MiniActive’s post in Arabic:

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation and Natan Fund for their ongoing support of MiniActive.

Naomi Roff2019-05-11T06:22:23+00:00April 25th, 2019|Blog, Effective Activism, MiniActive|

MiniActive – Happy Women’s Day!

In honor of Arab Women’s Day, which was in late March, on March 18, MiniActive held a huge party at its offices in East Jerusalem.

Showing their support of Palestinian women

The event included 400 of the MiniActive family of volunteers, and their families.

At the event, the women thanked the regional coordinators for their dedication. There were also performances of a poet, Debka dancing, and a short play.

Volunteers also shared their success stories. For example, one woman and her daughter joined the MiniActive network a few months ago, and their work drastically changed the way their area looks!

Here’s the Facebook post in Arabic:

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation and Natan Fund for its continued support of MiniActive!

Naomi Roff2019-05-04T16:55:13+00:00April 12th, 2019|Blog, Effective Activism, MiniActive|

MiniActive – Growing by Word of Mouth

Our MiniActive project has grown and developed immensely over the past 5 years, but there is so much more to do. We seek to do more, to develop more, to grow more, to help the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem. So, on Tuesday, December 18, we asked our MiniActive female volunteers to bring families members, neighbors, friends (all women, of course), to hear about the project, and the good it can do for neighborhoods throughout East Jerusalem.

Huge event with lots invested

In all, we had 400 women at the MiniActive offices in Wadi Joz, in a day that was organized entirely by the women. There were speakers and performers of all sorts.

There were speakers of all sorts

One woman spoke about overcoming obstacles in participating in MiniActive. This is definitely a delicate issue, since issues of being in touch with the ‘establishment’ are especially complex in East Jerusalem. However, the results speak for themselves: When streets are cleaner and more complaints are taken care of (now 50% of all requests from the 106 municipal hotline in Arabic are filled, as opposed to 30% only two years ago), and when the women themselves work in groups to advance topics, these obstacles are overcome.

Speaking about experiences in MiniActive

A second woman spoke about her experiences in MiniActive and how it changed her life. She is about 60 years old and had stopped working as a social worker about 10 years ago. Her children had married and were out of the house. She was lonely and depressed. She found MiniActive, and it brought her back to life. She feels that she can now contribute to society. She took part in MiniActive’s training for our Living Safer, Living Longer program that seeks to improve preventive health and home safety, and as a result, has been hired to encourage mothers of young children to immunize their children and to improve home safety.

There were also performances – on the oud

Performing with the oud

Debka dancing

Traditional debka dance

Displays and sales of women’s handicrafts

Women selling traditional handicrafts

From knitting, to ceramics to jewelry.

Lots of different kinds of handicrafts

And after that, everyone was so inspired that 100 new women joined MiniActive.

Here’s to more effective, women-based activism in East Jerusalem! Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation and Natan for their support of MiniActive.

Here’s the post (in Arabic) from the MiniActive Facebook page:

Naomi Roff2019-01-19T15:49:07+00:00December 25th, 2018|Blog, Effective Activism, MiniActive, Palestinians/Arabs|

MiniActive – Beginning a Successful Year Studying Hebrew

This year, for the fifth year running, MiniActive women are studying Hebrew. The Hebrew they learn will enable them to better navigate municipal and other public bodies, helping them to better self-advocate for their rights to a clean Jerusalem, for proper education, and much more.

MiniActive women studying Hebrew

This year, some 130 women and youth are studying Hebrew, in our long-standing cooperation with the Lissan organization. Most classes take place at the Hebrew University Mount Scopus campus.

Different levels, beginning, intermediate, advanced

Look how much fun they’re having!

Different ages, younger, older – all learning to communicate with the ‘other’

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation and Natan for their support of MiniActive.

Naomi Roff2018-12-01T12:51:16+00:00November 7th, 2018|Blog, Effective Activism, Identity Groups and Conflicts, MiniActive, Palestinians/Arabs|

MiniActive Youth – Doing their Part to Improve the Environment

Not wanting to be outdone by the boys, recently MiniActive youth – teenage girls group – began work in the area of the Central Arab Library in Wadi Joz.

Working together to improve the garden

They cleared the leaved and dry grass.

First, they needed to clean up the area.

The filled areas with sand and covered them, forming a solid base.

Building a base for????

They painted tires and filled them with sand, which will be used for planters.

They never get “tired” out!

These girls are not only decorating, they have also had an important hand in designing the plan, together with a trained landscape designers.

Yet another example of MiniActive youth working toward a better environment in East Jerusalem!

Here’s the original Facebook post in Arabic:

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation and Natan for its continued support of MiniActive!

Naomi Roff2018-10-06T08:27:24+00:00September 3rd, 2018|Blog, Effective Activism, Identity Groups and Conflicts, MiniActive, Palestinians/Arabs|

MiniActive – Empowering Boys as Well as Girls

Since 2012 our MiniActive project has been empowering Palestinian women – and their families and communities – throughout East Jerusalem. For the past few years we’ve also been empowering teenage girls‘ along those same principles.

And now, the boys working to improve the environment

Now it’s the boys’ turn.

Near the Arab Central Library

In June we began 2 new groups for boys, called “Youth Power,” each group with about 10 boys, aged 10 – 14. One group is from Kafr Aqeb, and the other group comes from throughout East Jerusalem, such as: A-tur, Silwan, Beit Hanina, Issawiya, Ras el-Amud, Shuafat.

They start by cleaning the area

Like the girls, they’re working to improve their environment. Each group is focusing on different projects.

Not forgetting any details

One group is working beside the Arab Central Library in Wadi Joz. The second group is also having clean-up operations in their neighborhood.

Cleaning in different parts of East Jerusalem

The boys are also learning English.

Learning English experientially

Much of the intensive work is taking place during the school summer vacation, but the program will continue into the year – improving the environment with their hands, studying Hebrew, and more.

Great work!

Here’s a short video of the boys in their English class:

Here’s a nice Facebook post from the MiniActive Facebook page:

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation and the Natan Fund for their continuing support of MiniActive.

Naomi Roff2018-08-31T11:35:47+00:00August 15th, 2018|Blog, Effective Activism, Identity Groups and Conflicts, MiniActive, Palestinians/Arabs|

Let’s Boast a Minute about MiniActive Youth

As the school year winds down and children and youth get ready for summer vacation, we wanted to take a minute to boast here about the astounding successes of our leading youth program, MiniActive Youth. We’ve reported about them here and here in the past, but it’s always worth an additional mention.

MiniActive Youth at work in Jebel Mukaber

One of MiniActive Youth’s important achievements over the last year has been the transformation of a bus stop behind the A-Sala’ah School for Boys in Jebel Mukaber. This was no regular bus stop. It was and still is the main place that hundreds of school children were dropped off before school, and waited after school. Before the youth began work, it was dark and dingy, and areas next to it were filled with junk and garbage. After months of contact and follow-up, we engaged the municipality to help clean up the ad-hoc garbage dump. But the youth did most of the work.

They recently made a movie about the whole process. Enjoy! We certainly did.

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation and other donors for their continued support of MiniActive.

Naomi Roff2018-07-04T04:45:02+00:00June 20th, 2018|Blog, Effective Activism, Identity Groups and Conflicts, MiniActive, Palestinians/Arabs|

MiniActive – Story of a Corner Garbage Dump in A-Tur 2017

This is the story that has a happy ending, thanks to the involvement of MiniActive and local residents.

This is what the kids saw at the entrance to their kindergarten

A new kindergarten director noticed a severe sanitation problem, basically right outside her door. There was an area that was not only filled to overflowing with household garbage, there was quite a bit of construction waste there too. In addition, the supporting wall to the kindergarten, which is adjacent to this ‘corner garbage dump,’ is in danger of collapsing, due to the garbage and construction nearby that dug beneath the wall.

Discussing how to improve A-Tur together

Whose responsibility was it to clean this situation up? That’s a good question – City sanitation is definitely the Municipality’s job. But are they responsible for the construction waste, when it was there because of private construction? What about the supporting wall of the kindergarten, which is rented from a private owner by the Municipality?

Working together to make A-Tur cleaner

MiniActive, the residents and the Municipality discussed these issues back and forth over a full month. On October 31, the municipal director for sanitation in East Jerusalem toured the area with residents in A-Tur. They came to an agreement of who will do what:

The residents would properly dispose of the construction waste and repave the area.
The Municipality agreed to sweep the streets regularly and to empty the garbage receptacle every two days.
The residents, together with the kindergarten landlord, will collect money to re-build the faulty wall.
The residents also agreed to cordon off an area for garbage, so that it won’t spill out onto the street.

The ‘after’ picture – all cleaned up and re-paved

Congratulations A-Tur! We’ll keep you posted on further developments.

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation for its continuing support of the MiniActive project.

Here’s the ‘before’ situation, as picked up by the 0202 Facebook page:

Here’s the final product in English, from the 0202 Facebook page:

And here’s the original post in Arabic:

Naomi Roff2017-11-25T13:07:02+00:00December 5th, 2017|Blog, Effective Activism, Identity Groups and Conflicts, MiniActive, Palestinians/Arabs|

MiniActive – Celebrating a New Playground in Shuafat

It’s always nice to see the fruits of your labors.

Want to come and play in Shuafat?

It’s even more rewarding when these fruits have taken time in coming.

In the spring and summer of 2015, MiniActive women, especially from Shuafat and northern Jerusalem, were asked to take part in a process of public participation to plan a playground. On the one hand it was an incredibly sensitive time (things really hadn’t been the same since the Gaza war the previous summer); on the other hand, the dearth of playgrounds and open green spaces in East Jerusalem is such that this was an opportunity that couldn’t be missed.

We’re sure it’s pretty crowded in the afternoons

This playground was one of several that were planned throughout Jerusalem, as part of a joint project with the Jerusalem Municipality and the Bloomberg Philanthropies. (You can read here about a similar playground that was planned and constructed in Gilo, and here about the earlier process.)

Not only playground, but grassy lawns as well

The Gilo playground was renewed in 2016. And many in Shuafat, had lost faith that the Municipality would actually install the playground as they discussed. But lo and behold, one bright summer’s day, our MiniActive women were walking in Shuafat and found this, which was installed this past summer. Here’s a video of the new playground:

Have fun!

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation for their continued support of the MiniActive project.

Here’s MiniActive’s Facebook posts about the discovery (in Arabic):

Naomi Roff2017-11-18T13:34:16+00:00November 25th, 2017|Blog, Deliberative Democracy, Effective Activism, MiniActive, Palestinians/Arabs|

Working Together, Working Separately to Help Jerusalemites Live Safer, Live Longer

We wrote here about introducing the Living Safer, Living Longer program into the Haredi community in Jerusalem. But really, the program is not just in the Haredi sector, it’s being developed simultaneously in the Palestinian population, and in the ‘general’ (religious / secular Jewish) population. We’re especially excited about this new model for effective activism – each sector is focusing on preventive health / home safety, but each sector is developing, designing and refining the program to meet the specific needs of that community. All three sector share information and lessons learned, but the program is developing uniquely in each sector. It is the community itself, through the volunteer Lead Teams – not the professionals – who are leading the way.

Volunteer Lead Team hearing about self breast exams from a nurse from the Bishvilech organization

Haredi Volunteer Lead Team hearing about breast self-exams from a nurse from the Bishvilech organization

We’re now getting down to business in all three sectors. There have been 5 meetings of the Haredi volunteer Lead Team, which chose to focus on preventive medicine. Thus far, they’ve learned about different issues affecting babies and toddlers, to youth, to women and seniors. Some of the lectures were given by nurses from the local well-baby clinic, and others from the Bishvilech organization, is the first and only woman to woman nonprofit organization in Israel focused on preventive medical care. (One of the lecturers was a female Haredi doctor, whose husband studies in Yeshiva, and who works at Sha’are Zedek hospital and volunteers with United Hatzalah emergency response organization. We thought she was really cool.) The team is currently in a learning stage, and are also considering learning about home safety as well. As the learning process progresses the team will come up with a checklist that will be used when going into people’s homes.

The West Jerusalem team (religious and secular Jews) has also had five meetings. They chose to focus on home safety, and learned about home safety for children from the Beterem organization, and learned about home safety for senior citizens from the Milbat organization. (They also tried out Milbat’s phone app for home safety for seniors.) They’ve already devised a checklist, and are in the process of revising and refining it. Members have even designed a logo (we’ll share it when it’s final), and are networking to bring in more participants into the program.

Introducing Living Safer, Living Longer to MiniActive women in East Jerusalem

And on November 8, we held the first meeting of one of two Arab East Jerusalem teams. This 20-woman team is from the MiniActive program, one of East Jerusalem’s largest networks of volunteers, which has been working since 2012 to improve infrastructure in East Jerusalem. In this introductory session we presented the program, its importance and its principles. Right now they’re also focusing on home safety, and the next meeting next week will feature a lecturer from the Beterem organization, who will talk about home safety and children. Until then, the women were asked to photograph a place in or around their homes and ask themselves if this area really is safe for children. How would you do in such as test?

Naomi Roff2017-12-08T14:10:26+00:00November 15th, 2017|Blog, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish Religious Denominations, Living Safer Living Longer, MiniActive, Palestinians/Arabs, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|