Letters from Palestine
‘Letters from Palestine’ is a joint Encompass project with Solutions Not Sides (SNS) which connects high school students in Palestine with students in the UK. The idea for the ‘Letters from Palestine’ programme came from our alumni and is entirely run by them. To support participants to share their stories, Encompass alumni have been working with high school students in Palestine to write letters about themselves, their lives and their communities. These letters are then mailed to students in the UK through SNS. The programme has also taken participants to Nablus to explore Palestinian culture. This included a trip to Nablus’ national park, as well as Palestinian music lessons. This excursion was designed to connect participants with their land and their roots and give them the confidence to speak in order to be heard, and listen to understand. The goal of the Letters from Palestine programme is to allow the participants to share their Palestine, not just what’s available in the news, empowering young people to get their voices heard and represent their identities and communities.
“By doing this project, the participants are empowered to share the Palestine they live in, and the situations they experience first hand, without interpretation or slant from news agencies or government representatives. We not only hope to empower our youth to speak for themselves, but also to change the negative stereotypes being promoted about Palestinians.” – Mohammad A, Encompass alumni and Letters from Palestine organiser.
While participants of the project are currently too young to take part in the Journey of Understanding (JoU), we think it is important to start making connections at this age and to provide as much of a positive influence as possible to teenagers who may not have many other outlets for their passions and their energies. We hope that many of these youngsters may take part in JoU in the future and themselves become game-changing alumni like the programmes’ organisers, Mohammed and Adel.
Participants share why they took part in ‘Letters from Palestine’, as what they learnt from the programme, below: