My Experience

Go Palestine

My name is Shadi Abdelaziz. I am a 20 years old boy from Palestine and Italy, currently studying Internationally Relation in my second year of university in Birmingham, in the United Kingdom.

Although I have been to Palestine every summer to visit my relatives in Nablus, I have never been in Hebron. Hebron is a beautiful city full of humble and friendly people. In fact, during my first couple of days in Hebron, I made several friends and they were kind enough to show me a tour of old city as well as the best restaurants to buy Falafel and Shawerma. I had to wait to try them, though, because I was lucky enough to arrive in the middle of the month of Ramadan, the Islamic month dedicated to sacrifice and fasting. It has been amazing how people took care of us volunteers, always inviting us for iftar, the meal that breaks the fast, and allows us to live the real culture, atmosphere, and warmth of the Ramadan evenings.

During my three week volunteering period, I have been teaching children in the Go Palestine Center as well as going several times with other volunteers in the same program to teach refugee kids at Fawaar Refugee Camp. Apart from teaching, I was given three hours of Arabic lesson every week and given the opportunity to tour the Old City, Ibrahimi Mosque and Al Shouhada Street.

As half Palestinian, being in Palestine is already a blessing. As I am currently studying in UK, I have completely forgotten how welcoming and how friendly the Palestinian Culture really is. I was amazed and proud at the way the Palestinians love foreigners and this is shown by the amount of greetings and little and big gestures of kindness my fellow volunteers and I have been getting every day.

I heard dozens of stories of how unsafe Hebron was, but upon living here for 3 weeks, I can say that it is bit exaggerated. Everyone I have met or confronted have been extremely friendly to us. Sheikh Hijazi who has been taking care of us at our accommodation, has been nothing but welcoming. During Ramadan, he even invited us for iftar at his house several times.

I would definitely recommend the Go Palestine Center in Palestine to anyone who would love to contribute and help Palestinian children with building up a bit of their future teaching them English. It is also a great opportunity, for whom decides to come, to get to know several unique cities such as Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, etc. and to get to know a wonderful, strong and kind people.