It could have been called a training instead of a school, but the SDF wanted the experience to have a distinct impact!
We could have called it a training instead of a school, they could have been called them halls instead of classes, trainees instead of students, trainers instead of teachers, and project coordinator instead of school principal, we could wear whatever we wanted instead of standardizing a uniform with the name of our school written on it, a break time instead of ringing the school bell to announce the time for recess, but the SDF refused to be ordinary, as it used to make every experience a distinct impact, a present remembrance, and an indelible effect.
After my first day at school, I was swept away by a wave of crying in the evening, the scale of the paradox between the two experiences had created a lot of rebellious questions within my mind, how one day made me feel so much presence, and how for years “that I have spent in a regular school” made me feel that I was transparent. I am grateful to the SDF for restoring the experience of the school more to idealism. I have lived six flowering days being heard, seen and appreciated.
The SDF family is only a small reality of what it is trying to cultivate in us from the love of others and the sense of each other’s suffering. We have strengthened a community bond that brings us together under the shadow of brotherhood in a society that has suffered a lot but is still struggling to transcend; What we have learned from the principles of civil society is that its members feel a sense of social responsibility towards the societal issues that do not affect them.
This was manifested in each of us advocating the cause of the other from another governorate. I believe that this is what distinguishes us as a Palestinian society. It is the depth of our deep bonds in our stable relations despite our differences. After the Go school experience, I deepened the concept of community unity. Our differences brought us together, they did not separate us. Many of us have heard for the first time about the case of his/her colleague who resides in another area, and he/ she sought and advocated for it. I am very happy with the expansion of my awareness, which was limited, and very happy with the togetherness that I experienced in this experience.
Not only in our advocacy of each other’s causes and initiatives, but also on the level of our personalities, each of us contributed with his mastery of knowledge, supported and encouraged each other in every obstacle we faced and in every weakness that confronted us. On a personal level, on the first day I stood giving a speech I wrote about human rights, I shuddered and gave it in a shaking voice. Then I received warm encouragement and from then on I still receive support and voices whispering that I can do it in a straight, confident tone.
At my school they take you out of your loneliness and then bring out the best in you, at my school our little steps are praised and appreciated, at my school they speak kindness not in vernacular Arabic.
In six days, we discussed a lot of what is under the concept of civic learning, such as citizenship, democracy, accountability and community advocacy and their tools, and finally, the community initiatives that qualified us to present exceptional initiatives, some of which will be worked on in the coming months.
It was not a dry learning, but it was full of an interesting exchange of knowledge, and we not only got acquainted with the concepts from a theoretical angle, but we lived through them and visited many initiatives that were implemented in cooperation with local authorities. I have always felt a youthful energy wasted in me, but now it has found its place among the corridors of the SDF supporting active youth.
In the presence of programs such as those offered by the SDF, the energy of our youth will no longer be wasted, especially in light of the presence of the SDF Committee that incubates young people’s ideas and supports their aspirations.
Me and my colleagues in our class are grateful to the SDF, to our professor, Dr. Talal, to our coach, Muhammad, to our school principal, Hadeel, and to every supportive individual in the SDF for their belief in us and our initiatives, from when it was a fleeting idea to an idea lying on paper with blue ink to be presented in front of the audience, so that it becomes a reality between pedestrians and vehicles.
I cannot help but remember what our great teacher, Dr. Talal Abu Rukba, told us over and over again: “Dream,” referring to the masterpiece of Aziz Abaza, “It was a dream, then a possibility, then it became a reality, not a fantasy!”
Cultivating in us the will to rebel against the regularity of ideas and hope, to believe in the ability to make them alive. Real change begins with faith, an inner belief in the ability to make an unprecedented decision or change an unjust policy to produce the desired and expected effect, because we can and because our voices are not stifled, but loud and heard.