ANNUAL REPORT / 2013 /

AFKAR

FOR EDUCATIONAL & CULTURAL PROMOTION

A new year empowerment and circulation

Butterfly’s effect is not seen......

Butterfly’s effect does not disappear

CONTENTS

Subject / Page
Welcome / 2
About us
  1. Conceptual framework
  2. Governance
  3. What makes us different
  4. Challenges and risks
/ 3
Main achievements in 2013
  1. General Summary
  2. The Palestinian Dialogue Forum program
  1. Initial dialogue forum competition
  2. National dialogue forum competition
  3. Evaluation summary
  4. Program’s outcomes
  1. Roles balance program
  2. Public relations
/ 8
Details of the offered programs and projects / 13
The Organization Success stories / 13
What does the Organization want of the media? / 14

Welcome

Ideas about circulation and development

We were very pleased while writing this speech expressing our feeling of joy and happiness of what has been achieved during a whole year but never been without challenges and risks. During the last year, AFKAR could accumulate its work, increase its interventions, and accumulate its relations whether inside or outside the country while keeping on its value system mainly offering service to students that make up the vital part of the social network. On the other side, we should address the failures of this organization during that year. We could benefit of these failures through which we could revive our ideas in order to go forward while committing to assisting this huge category of the Palestinian people which did not receive the required support yet.

Who should we thank?

It is necessary here to thank everyone who assures that this organization with other NGOs contribute in making the necessary change and impact to the educational and cultural sector while focusing on the values of humanity and democracy. First we thank all the donors, our partners who supported this organization and thus the Palestinian people. We also thank the Ministry of Education where through our mutual relations; we could contribute a lot in achieving the objectives of this organization and to serve the target groups. Ministry of Education did its best efforts when it found that all the parties of the educational process are serious and honest in their relationship. The great thank to Afkar’s staff who made these achievements and who without their help it was impossible to achieve any actual progress.

The hard and serious work is the one that makes the organizations, changes the experience into a form that deserves to be circulated to others. In 2013, we could complete our job with all directorates of the West Bank including Jerusalem. We tried to invest all our experiences earned by the supervisors, coordinators, and students in order to improve the performance which we could pick its fruit by forming a national team for the National Debate Champion as well as representing Palestine in the Debate Champion that will be held in Qatar on March, 2014.

Afkar provides a good opportunity for the target groups where more than 1800 students representing 200 governmental and private schools and more than 200 coordinators distributed among 16 directorates. We think that these numbers are very enormous for this organization to deal with. Nevertheless, Afkar could manage this program efficiently by sharing 48 supervisors from the Ministry and the Directorates to help Afkar in implementing a big part of the program activities in the directorates.

In 2013, Afkar tried to expand its cooperation with the donors and the partners as well as participating in other networks. Afkar participated in many meetings and conferences that helped to exchange the experience through a national initiative offered in learning and innovation conference held in Amman at the end of the last year. Afkar communicated with a large number of donor organizations and the private sector. Afkar applied to join the NGOs Network in order to be a part of civil society body for its own benefit and exchange experience in its field of work.

We look forward in 2014 to continue our work, expand the circle that may enable Afkar to upgrade and improve on all levelsexceeding our failures and benefiting from our experiences. We are proud of our achievements done in cooperation with the chairman of the Board of Directors, the General Assembly, the friends, and the staff and we are looking at what Afkar is going to offer in the next year so as to be more productive…more effective…more enabling…and more mainstreaming.

The secretary

Eman Nijim

AFKAR Organization

Palestine

About us

  1. Conceptual Framework:
  • Vision

A free, promising, thinker, initiator, participant, and influential generation.

  • Mission:

Afkar tries its best to create a Palestinian dynamic community environment that provides all requirements of freedom, innovation, free thinking and expression for the students in order to respect their selves and activate their role in the society in accordance with the human, national, cultural, democratic, and civil values.

  • Objectives:

Afkar through its Board of Directors proposes specific strategies to achieve its duty. These strategies represent the document of its establishment:

  • 1st strategy: creating youth and influential leadership supplied by ad valorem system of human rights and qualitative educational services.
  • 2nd strategy: promoting Afkar’s human, financial, and professional capacities.
  • 3rd strategy: networking with other governmental, civil, and grassroots organizations of the local society and with regional and international organizations.

Based on these objectives, Afkar for educational and cultural promotion represents its mission by the necessity of creating new efficient ground through which it hopes to take the wise decisions about using the powers in the proper location and to be practical in creating opportunities in the Palestinian society.

  • Structure:

-The General Assembly

It constitutes the top reference for the organization and consists of 26 members of various specializations where each one has his/her activity and role in promoting the Palestinian society. The General Assembly shall meet once a year to review the annual and financial reports and to approve the new policies. The General Assembly shall elect a new Board of Directors each two years to manage and represent the organization during that period.

-The Board of Directors

It consists of 9 members having three main roles:

  • Determine the organization’s direction: this means to develop the vision and mission, find a mechanism to achieve the strategy and then to supervise it.
  • Ensure the availability of resources: to determine the necessary financial and human resources to achieve its mission.
  • To supervise: this means to prepare the financial policies, assure the accountancy, follow the progress, and assess the findings.
  1. Governance:

Afkar shall govern to an organizational structure constituted of a General Assembly and a Board of Directors whose main duty is to create the strategic policies and objectives, direct and supervise the organization’s work, and to participate in networking and fundraising. The nine members of the present Board of Directors are experts in culture, civil society, and academy. Their election took place on March of 2013. According to the Afkar’s Bylaws, the Board shall be elected once two years by the 26 members of the General Assembly, which consists of individuals from the academic level, private sector, youth, intellectuals, jurists in addition to experts in the private sector. Besides to the forgoing bodies, Afkar is managed by an executive staff that assumed to translate these policies and strategies adopted and approved by the General Assembly and the Board of Directors. This staff works hard to upgrade and improve its performance.

Members of Board of Directors of 2013-2015 Term

1 / Samir Shalaldeh / Chairman of Board
2 / Eyad Odeh / Vice chairman
3 / Kamal Amin / Treasurer
4 / Eman Nijim / Secretary
5 / Safi Safi / Member
6 / Dr. Basem Zubaidi / Member
7 / Mary Musleh / Member
8 / Dima Mughannam / Member
9 / Majeed Sawalha / Member

Human being is the most precious/ Afkar’s Board of Directors

  1. What makes us different
  • Afkar has several axes that are urgent justification for its existence. These axes make Afkar unique for its programs and services, mainly:
  • Afkar for education and cultural promotion is one of the first NGOs that combinebetween education and culture within its strategy. Afkar considers education and culture as crucial and integral elements to make positive change in behavior and thinking patterns prevalent in the educational and cultural organizations in Palestine. Afkar thinks that the essence of human development of any educational and cultural organization lies in the overlap between educations on the one hand and culture on the other hand so that development of both tracks shall be integral and overlapping.
  • Afkar focuses in its vision on creating educational and cultural spots providing sound education able to cope with the new technology and knowledge and interact with values system that are sensitive to different cultures promoting the human being as an entity that has rights and pays attention to its duty towards the others and the society.
  • Afkar focuses on developing youth abilities through joining them in activities and programs that give them the necessary experiences to be qualified leaders having high skills and visions as well as to provide proper environment to discover their visions in order to develop their needs within a context that come in line with their development but does not contradict to the local society needs.
  • Another valuable initiative that may be added to Afkar’s advantages and it is one of the pioneer initiatives in Palestine. Afkar seeks to improve integration and to break the isolation imposed on the cultural organizations with the local society, either amicable or voluntary by joining the youth in order to achieve interaction and outreach between the educational and cultural organization and the local society organizations. This initiative aims to redistribute the roles of the main changes that affect the human building in the society.
  1. Challenges and Risks

We present the most prominent variables and changes that helped a lot in implementing the programs and activities and the organization power to face these challenges and risks:

-The political level

The Israeli Occupation is the main obstacle for any project to be implemented in Palestine and thus it is the main source for all risks that may stop any creative initiative because of the Occupation negative effect on transportation within the Palestinian Territories; inability of the Palestinian Authority and the NGOs of developing education in the marginalized areas under Israeli military control; arresting of teachers and students and the apartheid impact on the Palestinians daily life especially the students and teachers in addition to the check points which impedes their movement.

According to the Ministry of Education report for 2013 issued on 03/02/2014, these measures create unhealthy and unsafe environment for education and resulted martyrs, injuries, detainees, and some schools have been closed for several days, the matter that affected the educational environmentand on the execution of any project or activity in schools.

As for the inner side effect, the division between the West Bank and Gaza had and still having negative effect on civil and democratic values. Unfortunately, each party tries to eliminate the other and creates an environment that impedes democracy. This situation does help neither Afkar nor the others of doing their job and makes it difficult to achieve the objectives either among the students or among teachers and supervisors.

-The economic level

Lack of a productive economy and lack of local and international investments, poverty and unemployment are increasing; the main victim is the youth. According to the World Bank scenarios and the humanitarian observatory (a report issued by the World Bank-2013), it is expected that the Palestinian economy would totally collapse within the coming few years because of the Israeli and external financial and economic blockade including Israel’s refusal of returning tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority as well as weakness of the Palestinian regime to meet the Palestinian people needs and aspirations for an independent state able to live and improve. This matter reflects the dissatisfaction of many Palestinians including teachers who also reflect this instability on to the students, for example, teachers’ strike that stopped the educational life in all stages.

-The social level

Afkar faces the same challenges as all the other civil society organizations where the social challenges are a key problem for the Palestinian society represented in the negative customs and traditions mainly related to the Palestinian women. Referring to these customs, some Palestinian families do not allow the girl move freely and participate in such projects. On the other side, the extremist religious discourse has a negative role by reflecting a fanatic community culture that prevent the intellectual interaction and peering based on democratic patterns even some people try to eliminate the other and other behaviors that destroy the human rights.

-The academic level

Our schools and universities are controlled by a traditional educational system which prevent students of free thinking and encourage them on memorization, and then do not depend on research but storage and emptying of information or what is known as the banking system (Paolo Fereri 1999). On the other hand, the extracurricular activities do not get sufficient funding where 16% of the Palestinian Authority budget goes for the Ministry of Education while 90% of its budget goes for salaries and expenditure and 8% of this budget goes for the educational development in Palestine (Palestinian Statistics 2012).

-The media level

Afkar faces a different discourse by some Arab Satellite Channels which reflect a negative model of the culture of dialogue that promotes offensive culture, personifying, and public insult which grows in our children the culture of the logic of power rather than the power of logic.

Main achievements of 2013

General Summary

2nd semester of 2012-2013

  • Afkar has initially made training courses for 108 students about debate technique and capacity building on analysis and constructive criticism.
  • Afkar made several meetings to follow up 36 teachers and 32 supervisors enhancing their ability to implement the project, their consistency with Afkar plans and objectives, and gave them a feedback.
  • Afkar implemented the Palestinian Dialogue Forum competition inside private schools targeted 36 students from the West Bank.
  • Afkar offered appreciation certificates and prizes for students and teachers for implementing the project despite the difficulties during the program duration.
  • Afkar documented all activities done during the program duration through videos, photos, audio and written reports.

Summer of 2013

  • Afkar settled Roles Balance project idea through making agreements with partner organizations to fund its project inside the summer camps especially “Roza Luxemburg and the Pontifical Mission”.
  • Afkar developed two new theatrical texts by a professional trainer in conformity with Afkar objectives and programs.
  • Afkar trained a group of actors and some students who won in the primary stages of the Dialogue Forum where role balance project will be implemented at the summer camps related to their areas aiming to encourage the students and activate their role toward issues of their social situation.
  • Afkar did the project in 14 summer camps in 4 geographic areas in the West Bank.

1st semester of 2013-2014

  • Afkar works to circulate and continue its programs targeting the biggest number of Palestinian students by continuing its policies towards the Palestinian schools.
  • Afkar made a training course called “a training course for trainers” that included 16 supervisors from the Ministry of Education for 4 days, 8 hours a day and about debate basis and concepts.
  • Afkar targeted 1642 students from 174 Palestinian schools in the primary stage.
  • Afkar held 3 sessions for the supervisors and 3 others for the coordinators trying to correct their tracks and giving them feedback about their conformity with the program objectives.
  • Afkar made a training corse for 30 students complementing Roza project 2013 about debate techniques in the Palestinian schools.
  • Afkar and the Ministry of Education did 7 debate sessionswhich included 14 governmental schools about human rights and civil society issues.

2. Program of the Palestinian Dialogue Forum Competition

The program is divided into two parts:

-The Dialogue Forum first competition

The Palestinian Dialogue Forum aims to expose the youth leaders at schools and community organizations to a different culture of dialogue built on scientific basis based on strict information, respect of human values, and the basic rules of dialogue with the other which certainly be reflected positively to the development policies while considering that making a change can’t be achieved without promoting those leaders as they are the project of tomorrow. Human development can’t be addressed without addressing the development of youth leaders abilities and skills and enabling them to be instruments for changing some behavior patterns of their life especially the culture of dialogue: the dominant standards of this culture is the extent of marginalization and exclusion of the other by haggling, bickering, high voice, personalizing of ideas, and not being objective. We always see in our schools and universities behavior patterns reflecting a state of culture of dialogue far away from mutual respect, lacking usage of logic thinking tools as a scientific principle used instead of working within a team.