Teaching English Programs In Palestine (1-13 Weeks)

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!

I had an absolutely fantastic time in Hebron this year. It was my second time at the Excellence Center, and a testament to how amazing the people at this program are that I wanted to come back again. This year, I continued to teach English at the Center and I found it even more rewarding than my last stint teaching English. The students at the Center are amazingly kind, and passionate to learn and master English. The Center itself is clearly improving every year, and I can't wait to see how they will expand and continue to establish itself as a pillar of the Hebron community.

I taught English and learned Arabic (not intensive) for one week. My schedule was very flexible and included various activities and excursions related to Human Rights which I requested. My host family made sure we are comfortable, happy and are having fun. My host family provided us with fun experiences which immersed us in the local culture. Safety was never an issue and always felt comfortable. At the centre, home and Hebron in general.

Cons:
- The only issue I had was regarding the transportation as I was sometimes (not always) charged 2x-5x the local rate. Overall each route within Hebron never exceeded 5 euros so it was still manageable. But please keep that in mind if you are commuting alone or with other foreigners.

Overall the locals are extremely kind, hospitable and welcoming. This was an eye opening experince