Human Rights Intern in July 2019

I’m Nikka Marie Dominique and I am currently a university student studying psychology in California, United States. I served as a Human Rights intern for Go Palestine for five weeks.

I’m extremely passionate and dedicated in learning about the wellness of people, specifically youth, in environments riddled with extreme trauma. I have more than five years of field experience working with young people in America on their mental and emotional stresses, yet realized that I did not have a satisfactory amount of knowledge on the state of children’s emotional health in places other than the United States. In the end, I chose to come to Palestine because I wanted to expand my understanding on human and children behavior in trauma and knew Palestine would have a lot to learn from.

Al Khalil (Hebron) is a completely different society and environment than any of the ones that I’ve known. It’s an area that is riddled with stereotypes and misconceptions, and I rather understand the reality of the situation for myself. By choosing to come to Palestine, I knew that I would have a completely novel learning experience that would enhance my knowledge in ways that I couldn’t if I were to just simply to stay at home and do research on the topic.

Palestine, in general, is safe. Every day as I manage the city by myself, I am majorly confident about my safety. I am comfortable being alone and taking taxis, walking several kilometers, being out at dark, being at cafes or restaurants, and more. Being an outsider, I definitely notice the army guarding specific and limited places in the city, but unfortunately understand that my foreign citizenship makes soldiers more likely to negatively interact with locals instead of me. As a young foreign woman, the only moments that I felt threatened was by men on the streets, and even then, the street harassment I have experienced here in the city is comparable to the street harassment I experience at home in America as a woman. In total, I feel fairly secure in Palestine.

Go Palestine has been excellent in supporting me and ensuring that I have relevant activities to my program. I have conducted interviews with various Palestinian non profit organizations and have gone on visits to areas that are especially demonstrative of the human rights violations in Palestine. I have highly valued most, if not all, events that my program coordinator has organized to facilitate my learning.

Being able to live with a host family in Hebron city has been one of the most prominent highlights of my stay in Palestine. From what I’ve heard from other participants at the excellence center, experiences can vary. I believe that the host family situation can depend on what the intern decides- if the intern hopes to be out more, then the family can be a safe and respectful place to stay, but if the intern, like myself, hopes to interact with the family more, then the family can grow to be a lasting and meaningful relationship. I am so happy to say that I now consider my host family just my family and all of us plan to stay in contact even after my departure from Palestine.