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Welcome to the first edition of our English language newsletter, which covers the period of five months up to the end of February 2006. This is a summary of the bi-monthly Arabic-language version and contains only highlights of the events, activities and publications of each of the Foundation's projects and programmes as well as a general news section. |
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| Newsletter content | |
| General News | |
| Qattan Center for the Child | |
| Culture and Science Programme | |
| Palestinian Audio-Visual Project | |
| Qattan Center for Educational Research and Development | |
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Opening of the Qattan Centre for the Child (QCC) |
| Qattan Centre for the Child, Gaza City |  |
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After years of patient preparation and considerable delays caused mainly by the Occupation and closure of Gaza, the QCC finally opened its doors to the public on September 29th 2005. Since then, more than 23,000 children have visited and benefited from its services. Full membership has now reached 3,731 children. |
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| New Premises Planned in Ramallah | |
| As our projects expand, and as the number of people either working in or using our Ramallah premises increases, we have decided to build a new annexe to our current offices. The architectural competition was won by Anastas Architects in Bethlehem with whom the distinguished architect Jaafar Touqan has generously agreed to collaborate on behalf of the Foundation. | |
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| Recent Publications (in Arabic) | |
| Cover of Laqatatun Mughayira |  |
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Issam Nassar's history of early local photography in Palestine, Laqatatun Mughayira, was published in the Autumn in collaboration with Dar Kutub in Beirut. Launch parties were held in the author's presence in Beirut, Amman and Ramallah. The Culture and Science Programme also published the winning texts from the 2004 Literature Prize (Short Story and Poetry Prizes), in collaboration with Dar Al-Adab, Beirut. Our educational output included an introduction to teaching children music in collaboration with the Arab Centre for Popular Art in Beirut; a comparative studies volume on teaching linguistic expression in the classroom entitled Narrative, Imagination and the Production of Meaning by Wassim Kurdi and Malek Rimawi; and issues 18 and 19 of Rua Tarbawiyya, our educational studies quarterly. QCC also produced its first publication, the unique and comprehensive Guide to General and Children's Libraries by Mahmoud Itayyim. |
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| Conferences and External Activities | |
| Wasim Kurdi, director of programmes at QCERD will be attending the 5th International Conference on Drama and Theatre in Education in Athens on March 22. Colleagues from QCERD Gaza attended the 2005 Cairo Book Fair, but their colleagues from Ramallah were unable to do so as their visa applications were rejected. However, they were able to attend the Sharjah Book Fair between 10 and 17 December 2005. Our deputy director, Manal Issa, and QCC Director Reem Abu Jabr took part in a workshop on Project Development and Funding Applications in Alexandria, in cooperation with the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue between Cultures. | |
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| Electronic Forums | |
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We are currently developing a number of electronic forums around various cultural and educational issues with the aim of inviting comment from the public on the Foundation's work but more importantly to encourage debate about important issues related to our work. |
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Main Activities |
| Extended library services in a Gaza school |  |
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Since its opening in September 2005, the QCC has organised a number of activities alongside the routine work of receiving its young readers. These have included a portrait photography workshop for children; the Open Microphone, which allows children to show off their singing talents; the Winter Reading Camps; a daily programme of film screenings; two theatre productions (in collaboration with the Basma Cultural Institute); the completion of the first course of its Language Clubs Programme; a number of book fairs outside the centre to encourage reading; the launch of its Mobile Library Service with visits to six schools and a number of local, social and youth clubs; a number of activities for its Children with Special Needs and regular short courses introducing children to IT. |
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| Services for Librarians | |
| In addition, the QCC has organised several activities aimed at librarians and at children's librarians in particular. Two lectures on the WINISIS software were held, as well as additional talks on modern electronic filing systems and online libraries. | |
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| Networking | |
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We also continued our networking programme with local institutions, inviting a number of them to visit the Centre on a monthly basis. During this period, we received visitors from the Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children and the Institute for Free Thought and Culture. An open day on Protecting Children from Exploitation was held in collaboration with the Gaza Mental Health Project. |
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Prizes and Awards |
| This Week in Palestine |  |
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At the closing ceremony for the 2005 Programme, the biennial Journalism Prize was awarded to Naela Khalil (Ramallah) in the feature category and to Hisham Naffa' (Haifa) in the article category. The new Tom Hurndall Prize In Photojournalism, named after the young British photographer killed by the Israeli Army as he protected a group of children in Rafah, was awarded to Ala' Eddine Badarneh (Nablus). The Literature Prizes for fiction and theatre were both withheld because the jury did not consider the texts to be of a sufficiently high standard. However, three Recognition Awards were given to Mahmoud Hourani for his novel Jaber Al-Baraka and to Abdel-Fattah Shehadeh for his novel Imra' Wahida Lizamanain, as well as to Ala' Hlehel for his play Haidistan. A new Prize for Distinguished Cultural Work was launched this year and awarded to the monthly English-language magazine This Week in Palestine for its outstanding cultural coverage. (Full details of the other awards in 2005 are available on our website).
The ten finalists for the 2006 Art Competition were also announced in February. |
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| Exhibitions | |
Visitors at Issa’s Boredom exhibition |
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Exhibitions were held either at the Foundation's premises in Ramallah or at other venues and included a video-art exhibition by the UK Turner-Prize finalist Catherine Yaas; paintings by Suheil Salem (Gaza); a photography exhibition by German photographer Peter Dammann and installation work by Ayman Issa, entitled Boredom. |
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| Concerts | |
| Bshara Harouni |  |
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The young pianist Bshara Harouni (Nazareth), a recipient of the Qattan Music Scholarship, gave a concert on February 25 at the Peace Centre in Bethlehem to a packed audience. |
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| Workshops and Lectures | |
Palestinian-American poet Nathalie Handal |
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The distinguished Palestinian novelist Sahar Khalifeh generously gave a week-long workshop in fiction-writing attended by nine young novelists from all over the country. With support from the Programme, poetry readings were also held at the Sakakini Centre by newly-published poets Hala Shrouf (Poetry Prize, 2004) and Dalia Taha, as well as Palestinian-American Nathalie Handal (in English), who read new work at the Foundation's premises. |
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| Visitors and Residencies | |
| UK artist Nicola Gray |  |
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Visitors at our Guest House included British artist and curator Nicola Gray on a mission to collect work which will be sold in London in May 2006; the young Palestinian filmmaker Cherien Dabis; the distinguished British writer and art critic John Berger; Carme Esteve, dance photographer; Spanish artist Chené Gomez and others. |
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| Forthcoming Publications (in Arabic) | |
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Hassan Everywhere, written and illustrated by Hassan Hourani (March 2006) Windows in a Wall of Silence, an anthology of writing, art work and photography by Palestinian women on their experience of the Second Intifada. (March 2006, with the Heinrich Böll Foundation). 2004 Art Competition Catalogue (June 2006) |
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Training Programme |
| Camera instructor Rémon Fromont with students |  |
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Part II of the Project's Training Programme was held again in Amman under the supervision of Michel Khleifi and a number of Arab and international instructors. The programme was attended by 19 of the original 29 students who had taken part in the first leg of the programme in Summer 2005.The Foundation is grateful to the Royal Jordanian Film Commission and the Al-Hussein Cultural Centre for their generous support. Details of the third and final part of this programme will be announced in Spring 2006. |
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| Schools Film Education Programme (1) | |
| Technician installing projector at Kuful Hares school (WB) |  |
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Equipment: preparations are under way to purchase and install the projection units in twenty-six new schools of which twenty-one will be in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and five inside the Green Line. Once this phase has been completed in the summer, the Programme will have laid the foundations for forty-five ciné-clubs in Palestinian schools. |
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| Schools Film Education Programme (2) | |
| Teachers Workshops: In order to help teachers implement the Film Education Programme in these schools, we have continued to organise introductory workshops in film history and appreciation and the use of film in the classroom. A second, two-day workshop was held in Ramallah with the participating teachers (West Bank only), with Wasim Kurdi (QCERD) who is planning a complimentary workshop in Gaza in March. A third workshop is planned with Omar Al-Qattan in mid-April in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip. | |
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| Schools Film Education Programme (3) | |
| Cover of Tale of the Three Jewels |  |
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Purchase of DVDs: the selection and acquisition process of the films (on VHS or DVD) which will be deposited in individual schools continues. Each film needs to be cleared both through Israeli customs and then through the Ministry of Education, so this has taken longer than anticipated. However, copies of Modern Times (Charles Chaplin) and Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein) have already been deposited as well as copies of Tale of the Three Jewels, generously donated by its director, Michel Khleifi. |
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| Publication of Palestinian Films on DVD | |
| Still from Malas’ The Night |  |
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Calls for proposals to apply for funding from our DVD publication and distribution programme will be published in March. This will cover films on Palestinian themes or those made by Palestinians. Copies of each published DVD will also be deposited in our school ciné-clubs. In the meantime, the British actress Vanessa Redgrave and the Syrian director Muhammad Malas have graciously allowed us to re-issue their films on DVD for this purpose. We also persist in our discussions with the Ministry of Culture in our attempt to acquire the non-commercial rights to films made by the PLO's Cinema Unit, but no progress has yet been made on that front… |
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| Film Library in Ramallah | |
| Since we began creating the nucleus of a film library in our current premises in Ramallah, information on available films has been made accessible online at the Online Library. These DVDs will be available for viewing on our premises, however external borrowing is not currently permitted. We are planning a similar collection in Gaza. | |
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| EU Visit | |
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A monitoring delegation appointed by our funding partners, the European Union, paid us a visit in November. The delegation was also able to visit two of the school ciné-clubs in the Ramallah area. The delegation's report will soon be available on our website. |
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Appointment of Advisory Committee |
| A new advisory committee was formed to support the QCERD's staff. The committee includes Dr George Assoussa, Dr Richard Pring, Dr Elia Zureik and Dr André Mazzawi. | |
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| Conferences | |
| The Centre's Second Annual Educational Conference will be held in Ramallah on the 8th and 9th of April 2006. Its central theme this year will be The School as a Space of Interaction. | |
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| Workshops | |
QCERD researcher with teachers in Jericho |
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Both the Ramallah and Gaza Centres continued in their regular workshops, most notably around various themes in the teaching of Maths, Science, English, Creative Writing, Critical Methods in Teaching Social Science, Producing Teaching Packages Using IT and the Internet in Teaching. An intensive, week-long workshop was held in Jericho in January and attended by 120 teachers from various schools in the area. |
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| Teachers' Forums | |
| These continue to grow and attract new members. As a consequence of the Jericho workshop, the town has now created its own teachers' forum. The monthly Meeting of Head Teachers and Supervisors organised by QCERD was also held at regular intervals. | |
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| Evaluation Papers on Aspects of the Curriculum | |
| QCERD continued its regular evaluation of the National Curriculum with a number of papers. | |
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| Studies | |
| Several draft papers were written and discussed by our researchers. These included papers on Arabic-language teaching methods; Integrating Arts in the EFL Classroom (English); Linking Mathematics with the Student's Practical Experience and Integrating Exceptional Students in their Social Environment. | |
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| Library Hours | |
| QCERD Library, Ramallah |  |
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Due to growing demand, the Ramallah Library will now close at 5pm instead of 4pm. |
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| Forthcoming Publications | |
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Translations in Drama and Education, edited by Wasim Kurdi. This will include seven articles by numerous international and Arab scholars. (May 2006) |
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| 2006 © | A.M. Qattan Foundation, all rights reserved |