On Tuesday, April 26th, 2016, the International Youth Exchange Programme of the Public Relations Department at An-Najah concluded the activities of its international spring camp for the year 2016.

The activities were over two weeks and included 60 students from the university’s various departments where a group of international volunteers moderated a number of workshops; namely, Conversation and Public speaking, Leadership and Competencies, Debating Skills and Spanish Language; each training workshop consisted of 15 training hours.

Student Ahmed Ayoub, the Camp Coordinator mentioned that the camp aims at developing students’ competencies and skills on various topics and offering international volunteers and trainers the opportunity to interact with Palestine’s culture, traditions and political situations.

The camp included organizing field trips to the old city in Nablus and in Hebron, the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, Qalqilya, Tubas and the apartheid wall. They also visited a number of refugees’ camps in the West Bank including Balata, Aida and Al-Far’a.

The camp also included organizing a series of social meetings between the university students and the international volunteers which shed light on cultural dialogues, cultural, ethnical and religious diversity and the role of international institutions such as the Red Cross in offering humanitarian services to the Palestinian captives.

Volunteers also met with members from the Christian and Samaritan communities and had the opportunity to visit villages alongside the apartheid wall to learn about the challenges that encounter Palestinian farmers who were separated from their farms.

The activities also included a series of workshops to exchange cultures between Palestinian students and other cultures such as the German and the Algerian.

Student Amr Jamous said that the programme reinforced his self confidence to speak in English eloquently in public and communicate with other people from different cultural and religious backgrounds.

Trainer Chris Clay from Scotland commented that his training workshops depended on learning through play which encouraged more students to enroll in the training courses.