Teach English & Study Arabic in Palestine (1-13 Weeks)

My name is Gina and I participated in the teaching English program.
I stayed for over 2 months with a host family who were incredibly welcoming and made me feel at ease being a new place.

At the centre I had Arabic lessons which really helped me to be able to communicate in the city and beyond, by the end of my stay I definitely had an understanding of the basics.

I taught intermediate English to a group of young students over the summer and I think this was my favourite experience, I learnt a lot about Palestine through them.

The Excellence Centre also organised many visits to areas of Palestine I wouldn’t have seen if travelling on my own. We had opportunities to meet many different types of people and listen to their stories. The tours around the old town of Hebron and surrounding areas were really interesting and I really value the shared experiences I had.
It was wonderful to meet so many people from all over the world within the centre, there really was a varied group of volunteers, so a real cultural exchange. I made friends and we managed to travel around the country to Bethlehem, Ramallah, Nablus, Jericho and Jenin.
The people of Palestine are incredibly kind and welcoming and there is a real sense of community here. I am sad to be leaving and would love to return soon so I can see the friends I made here.
Thankyou to the Excellence Centre for giving me an experience to remember for a lifetime

My name is Maddy Sala, I am from the UK and I am currently studying History. I have been at the Excellence Center Palestine for 4 weeks on the Volunteer with Palestinian Refugees programme.
I participated in many activities with the Excellence Center, namely a tour of Hebron's Old Town, trips to surrounding cities, Arabic classes, and many more. The Center also organised all my volunteering, setting me up with a class both at the Center itself and in Al Farwwa refugee camp, facilitating my schedule there, picking up extra classes and initially my transport.
I thoroughly enjoyed my Arabic lessons. My teacher, Ghaidaa, was kind, supportive and dedicated. She created a positive environment in class which everyone enjoyed and massively appreciated. She had great teaching methods, giving us some good conversational knowledge which I have successfully used both while teaching and travelling.
I really enjoyed my time with Excellence, the staff are kind and welcoming and every volunteer has been very friendly. People travel together, explore the city and support each other here which, as a woman travelling alone, has been invaluable. While I don't think anyone necessarily came here for social aspect, we have all made some good friends here and live in a constantly warm and inviting atmosphere. I could not be more grateful for the host family I was placed with. They have been nothing but kind, supportive and genuinely loving for my entire month-long stay. Like all people in Hebron, they have consistently offered generosity and hospitality, making my entire experience considerably easier and happier. For me, the host family system has been invaluable and incredibly positive, I cannot overstate how crucial they have been to my time in Palestine. The students I have taught have been welcoming and enthusiastic. They are always eager to learn and love their time with the Excellence Center.
On the weekends, I have been to a few places around Palestine with both my host family and other volunteers. On my first weekend, I was able to visit Bethlehem and the Church of the Nativity which was amazing. I visited Ramallah twice, staying overnight the second time, which was both incredibly interesting and fun. I also went to Jerusalem twice, being able to see the Dome of the Rock, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and many more amazing sites. Palestine is a beautiful, interesting and welcoming country that I genuinely believe everyone should visit.
While many people are concerned with safety in Palestine, I felt very safe for the vast majority of my stay. Having a host family who gave me lots of advice and guidance ensured I was constantly safe and socially aware, as well as the ability to always travel with other volunteers. Additionally, the people of Palestine are incredibly helpful and friendly and are always happy to help you, whatever you may need. People will often speak to you in the street and get to know you and are always eager to give directions or assist in any way they can.
I truly enjoyed my time in Palestine and at the Excellence Centre. I feel it has improved me as a person and allowed me to help others. Palestine is beautiful and full of culture, life and genuinely good people. I am very grateful to have been able to visit here and definitely feel I chose the right programme and organisation, I loved teaching the students and spending time working with them. However, I would say that your time spent with the Excellence Centre can be very dependent on your choices rather than the Centre's oppprtunities, especially programmes outside of teaching. While I really enjoyed my time here, I feel there is potentially a lack of organization and support given to interns and volunteers in other programmes who require more than a destination and students in order to carry out their volunteering. Even those who did teaching programmes like myself I feel could have been given more support and training. Luckily, another volunteer (a teacher by profession) was able to give me guidance and teach me how to make lesson plans, prepare for class, etc, but others may not be so lucky and would need more support from the Centre to prepare themselves for the responsibility of leading a class, particularly those teaching outside the Centre such as at Al Farwwa.
In general, I had an amazing time in Palestine. I learnt about the culture, met incredible people and taught wonderful classes full of bright and enthusiastic students. I also cannot overstate the kindness and love of my host family who I will be forever grateful to and plan to keep close contact with after leaving Palestine. While I do feel the Centre can lack organization at times, I am grateful for the opportunity and incredibly glad that I came to a genuinely incredible country.

My name is Maddy Sala, I am from the UK and I am currently studying History. I have been at the Excellence Center Palestine for 4 weeks on the Volunteer with Palestinian Refugees programme.
I participated in many activities with the Excellence Center, namely a tour of Hebron's Old Town, trips to surrounding cities, Arabic classes, and many more. The Center also organised all my volunteering, setting me up with a class both at the Center itself and in Al Farwwa refugee camp, facilitating my schedule there, picking up extra classes and initially my transport.
I thoroughly enjoyed my Arabic lessons. My teacher, Ghaidaa, was kind, supportive and dedicated. She created a positive environment in class which everyone enjoyed and massively appreciated. She had great teaching methods, giving us some good conversational knowledge which I have successfully used both while teaching and travelling.
I really enjoyed my time with Excellence, the staff are kind and welcoming and every volunteer has been very friendly. People travel together, explore the city and support each other here which, as a woman travelling alone, has been invaluable. While I don't think anyone necessarily came here for social aspect, we have all made some good friends here and live in a constantly warm and inviting atmosphere. I could not be more grateful for the host family I was placed with. They have been nothing but kind, supportive and genuinely loving for my entire month-long stay. Like all people in Hebron, they have consistently offered generosity and hospitality, making my entire experience considerably easier and happier. For me, the host family system has been invaluable and incredibly positive, I cannot overstate how crucial they have been to my time in Palestine. The students I have taught have been welcoming and enthusiastic. They are always eager to learn and love their time with the Excellence Center.
On the weekends, I have been to a few places around Palestine with both my host family and other volunteers. On my first weekend, I was able to visit Bethlehem and the Church of the Nativity which was amazing. I visited Ramallah twice, staying overnight the second time, which was both incredibly interesting and fun. I also went to Jerusalem twice, being able to see the Dome of the Rock, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and many more amazing sites. Palestine is a beautiful, interesting and welcoming country that I genuinely believe everyone should visit.
While many people are concerned with safety in Palestine, I felt very safe for the vast majority of my stay. Having a host family who gave me lots of advice and guidance ensured I was constantly safe and socially aware, as well as the ability to always travel with other volunteers. Additionally, the people of Palestine are incredibly helpful and friendly and are always happy to help you, whatever you may need. People will often speak to you in the street and get to know you and are always eager to give directions or assist in any way they can.
I truly enjoyed my time in Palestine and at the Excellence Centre. I feel it has improved me as a person and allowed me to help others. Palestine is beautiful and full of culture, life and genuinely good people. I am very grateful to have been able to visit here and definitely feel I chose the right programme and organisation, I loved teaching the students and spending time working with them. However, I would say that your time spent with the Excellence Centre can be very dependent on your choices rather than the Centre's oppprtunities, especially programmes outside of teaching. While I really enjoyed my time here, I feel there is potentially a lack of organization and support given to interns and volunteers in other programmes who require more than a destination and students in order to carry out their volunteering. Even those who did teaching programmes like myself I feel could have been given more support and training.

At the Center, I took Arabic classes and taught English to the students.
Some of the activities I did at the Excellence Center were my going on a tour to the
Old City, meeting with various Palestinian families and discussing with them about
their experiences under the occupation, visiting a refugee camp, and accompanying an
all-women’s health clinic to assist expecting mothers at a remote village. I took Arabic courses with Ghaida and the sessions were wonderful. She is a phenomenal teacher, and made our lessons very relevant to what we needed in order to get by in Hebron. She also assisted me with my writing and gave me extra lessons when I asked in order to improve my calligraphy. I believe that the staff at the Center are phenomenal and they addressed my needs and always found various ways to keep me engaged. Breakfast was provided every day and they helped to create a friendly, family atmosphere within the Center. Overall, my experience at the Excellence Center was amazing, and I would definitely
recommend it to everyone. It gave us a true glimpse of a wonderful community and
people and the people wereallowed them to narrate their life story, as opposed to me
imposing anything on them. I quite enjoyed myself and would love to come back and
visit again. I am super grateful for everything.

Overall it was a great program, Palestine is a wonderful country, and all the workers at the center were incredibly nice and professional. I felt that Palestine was safer than the United States.
All of the Palestinian workers at the center were incredibly kind and professional, I enjoyed
working and spending time with every single one of them. I also really liked all of my students;
they were all very smart and respectful; they were a pleasure to teach.
My favorite experience was staying with my student’s family in Dura.
Palestine will always be near to my heart, and I hope one day the Jews will be defeated and
Palestine will be free.
Overall I had a great experience and I would recommend the excellence center to people I know

My name is Maciek, I'm from Poland and I've spent last two weeks in Hebron as a participant in a TESA program. During my stay at the Centre I had an opportunity to learn Levantine Arabic. The atmosphere during the classes was very friendly and I'm very satisfied with the progress I made here. As so far I only knew the basics of MSA, so I was really glad that I finally could learn a dialect. The classes with local students were a positive experience as well. The students were very active and keen on studying English. The Centre's staff is incredibly hospitable, friendly and helpful. Thanks to them I had many opportunities to take part in trips organized by the Centre. The staff also gave me advices regarding travelling to other cities in Palestine (in my case it was beautiful Bethlehem). During my stay I was accomodated in a cozy apartment with other volounteers. Thanks to that I made new friends and everlasting memories. The apartment's location is really good, as it is placed near the main street. Throughout my stay I felt entirely safe, local people are very friendly and hospitable. All abovementioned aspects sum up to a very positive impression of Palestine and Hebron. Undoubtely I will come back here in the future.

This program gives you the best of both worlds - an oportunity to meet and live with Palestinians, and learn Arabic at a personalised level. This deepens the connection with Hebron and it's people that you will find is made from the moment you reach the city. The Excellence Centre is full of caring, protective staff who will help you engage with the Palestinian experience however that looks like for you - arranging visits to professionals in healthcare to heloing you boost your Arabic skills, to presentations from Human Rights groups. I strongly reccommend looking at this programme if you have any curiosity at all about Palestine and Hebron.

I had a wonderful experience teaching English in Hebron, I taught in the old city and Taffouh, a small village outside of Hebron. My experience was very insightful and I was extremly lucky to meet other foreigners here, in addition to the amazing locals. The local culture is nothing like I have ever experienced, everyone is so warm and welcoming. It is easy to meet other foreigners, the center is always full of people. Breakfast is a great time to talk and meet new people.I am very grateful I was able to experience Palestinian life and culture.

Thank you Excellence Center!