An Interview with Nur Najjar-Elhuda

Nur Najjar-Elhuda has taken over the running of the NADI Youth Club. She comes to the NADI with experience – including hers as a teen NADI member – and energy to make changes as well as getting the youth in the village excited about activities and meetings. She was recently interviewed about her work with the NADI and her plans for the future.

Q: How does growing up in the NADI help inform your work with teens in the village today?

Nur: That was a really important part of my life, as a teenager. I still get emotional when I talk about the camping trips we took and the fun we all had together. I really understand how hard it is for them when they finish primary school and go off to different middle and then high schools. They stop seeing one another so often, and the NADI is the place where everyone comes back together. It is the place where my most meaningful memories were created.

Q: How do you see these kids growing apart?

Nur: In recent years, it has become more and more difficult to keep them connected, once they move on with their education. There are more schools opening up, and the kids (who are tracked in high school) find their paths splitting. So they stop being so close, despite living in the same village –even more so for those who live outside the village. The COVID pandemic really added new challenges to this situation, making it harder to get back to what we had before.

Q: What do you see as the purpose of the NADI?

Nur: First of all, it is crucial to offer the teens a comfortable place to hang out in WASNS. But it has to be more than just a clubhouse. We need to offer our teens special, meaningful activities that will help them grow as a community and will reinforce the values they receive living here in WASNS.

Q: How will this goal be accomplished?

Nur: For all this to happen, we need to do a lot of work. We need to mend the leaky roof, change the old doors and renovate the floor in the NADI building. I want to rearrange the big room so that we can screen films and sportscasts on a big screen; arrange tables for the creative workshops that the younger kids love so much; get new equipment for the moveable stage we use for drama lessons and performance; and still make it a good space for fun parties. The smaller room in the building will be a co-learning hub for older teens. And we want to work on the outdoor area as well, making it a nice space for teens to just hang out together.