SDF in partnership with Beit Lahia Municipality open Almanshiya Park as part of Go School Initiatives
Gaza – Go School
The participants of the Go School for Civic education presented a set of ideas that contribute to solving a problem and help improve the quality of services provided by local governance and meet the needs of citizens. This was after having undergone intensive training in civic education subjects and community initiatives, after which participants moved to the theatre of ideas to present ideas of their initiatives and be evaluated with the most needed and appropriate documentation for application.
Finding Where to implement the initiative
Participants worked for a long time to find a place to implement the idea of the initiative in various governorates of the Gaza Strip, so that the implementation of the initiative would meet the required needs in terms of the population of the neighborhood and children in the region. This way, the active participation of the program’s youth in the implementation of the initiative at all stages was ensured.
Signing an MOU with Beit Lahia Municipality
After the search tours, Manshiyah Park was selected as being in line with the need of the initiative, and achieving the goals that participants aspire to.
The Social Developmental Forum signed an MOU with the municipality to carry out a series of upcoming activities intersecting with the work of the parties. The first partnership activities were the Manshiya Park within the GO Project. The SDF team, represented by the Chairman of the Board of Directors and the GO Project team, met with the Mayor of Beit Lahia Eng. Alaa al-Attar and the engineers’ team of the municipality to agree on the implementation of the initiative. They also agreed on providing the necessary support from the municipality to the project team to facilitate their tasks in the rehabilitation of the park.
After agreeing on the full details with the municipality, the SDF Team and Go School Youth met with the contractor overseeing the rehabilitation of the park and the Go School initiators. Through the meeting, it was agreed to intervene fully in the venue to begin the implementation of the initiative within the park corridors.
Commencement of work within the park
The municipal teams provided the necessary support within the park’s corridors, where the parks and team decorated and arranged trees, and another team worked to settle and arrange the venue so that the initiators could begin their interventions.
In the same work frame, the Go School initiators decorated the walls and colored them in a beautiful way that painted the park’s landmarks. They decorated the walls with colors, decorated all the chairs inside the park with beautiful colors, installed lounge umbrellas, covered with colored skin, installed their own chairs, placed children’s toys inside the park and prepared a football field to receive them.
After all the work has been completed, the park has been completely transformed into a safe space for children’s play and a vital place for the reception of the residents of the neighborhood due to the beautiful colors that have completely overwhelmed the place.
One of the Go School initiators, Sally Tabash, says: “I enjoyed working with colleagues in the rehabilitation of the park, and for the first time I participated in a voluntary work of this kind. This is my first time to paint and color. Every morning, I was getting up early and coming from Khan Yunis to Beit Lahia to share the work with my co-workers inside the park and I am very pleased with the results.”
Opening of the Park
In partnership with Beit Lahia Municipality, SDF organized the opening event of Manshiya Park after working for weeks with the Go School youth to rehabilitate the space. The event was organized with the attendance of the SDF team, the municipal team, youth initiators, Manshiya neighborhood committee and the people of the neighborhood. The opening took place in a festive environment of children celebrating the rehabilitation of the park that became fully equipped it to receive them.
The SDF team also prepared recreational clowns and games to bring joy and happiness to the place for the children, where the children enjoyed the park and the change that occurred to the park.
Hadil Abu Zaid, GO Project Coordinator, says, “Through the initiative, we seek to implement what the participants in the School of Civic Education Go School have learned, we also seek to strengthen the role of youth and citizens in improving the quality of services provided by local bodies and responding to the needs of citizens in providing a safe space for residents of Beit Lahia”
It is worth mentioning that the initiative came after intensive training obtained by youth at the Go School in civic learning and participation in local governance and community interventions. Youth moved from learning theories into putting them into practice. Their initiative was one that serves the neediest and one that serves a large segment of the population. Here, the rehabilitation of the Manshiyah Park in the northern Gaza Strip city of Beit Lahiya was selected.