Update on the Nadi Youth Club

2020 has been a difficult year for the Nadi Youth Center in the village. Just as the group of young people began to gel together in January, the coronavirus pandemic began. During the final months of Lihi’s pregnancy, the Nadi hardly operated. Till the end of May, during the pandemic’s first wave and national lockdown, activities took place over Zoom. However, by summer, the virus was more or less contained and, for a few weeks, the country enjoyed a more relaxed period, enabling in-person activities to take place.

While, in the summer months, Lihi was on maternity leave, she was replaced at the Nadi by Genia Schwartz (who you may read more of in the Humans of NSWAS interviews). She organized a full and varied range of activities including individual and group meetings and many activities for fun and education, with the help of parents and families. Among the events were a cooking competition and workshop for the teenage Nadi group, a night trip in the woods, a baking workshop in the bakery of Eyal Tamir (a new resident), a picnic with the parents, a forest bicycle trip with Tom Edlund, film screenings and a theater workshop. As a respite from the prolonged lockdown, almost all the children of the village participated in these summer activities, so this was a time for restoring old ties and forming new ones, for the children and teenagers.

The Nadi and the Spiritual Center got together with the film department and student union of Tel Aviv University, to host ten volunteer students who taught the young people filmmaking skills. Together, they produced a film in which they interviewed some of the long-term village members (Aisha Najjar, Anwar Dawood, Kamel Tibi and Ety Edlund). Afterwards, with the help of the Film Bus (see photo), we held a screening of films outside on the Primary School grounds, to which dozens of participants came. This was a lovely evening during the period between national lockdowns. Our village was the first stop on the itinerary of the Film Bus, which went on to visit locations all around the country.

In September, we finally managed to recruit a Palestinian coordinator for Nadi, village member and recent psychology graduate Reem Haj Yahya. Reem grew up in the village and attended its school. Later she also studied group facilitation at the School for Peace and worked with us in Communications and Development office to successfully coordinate two consecutive Palestinian summer camps.

With Reem’s commencement and Lihi’s return from maternity leave, the Nadi team began to work with the young people to organize activities for the new school year. They reopened the theater club and recruited through the Mateh Yehuda regional council two young volunteers. They also put together a team of three young guides from the village (Nai Danaf, Muhammad ’Abd al-Qader and Adam Tali).

The Nadi has reopened and we are in the midst of a process of renovating and making changes to the Nadi building, which was used by the nursery during the Coronavirus period. Reem and Lihi are now working together to produce a full year of activities for the youth. Among the first will be a community event to raise donations for children who are in a shelter for battered women. The activity is taking place in the framework of the month long struggle against gender-based violence, which leads up to The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (November 25).

We wish the Nadi team, including its coordinators, youth guides and volunteers, a very successful year.

More photos can be found here (for September) and here (for October)