Experiences and photos

I went to Palestine with the Amos Trust in April 2015 to help re-build a demolished home. Some of you you may remember I did something similar in 2013  (see 'Lia in Palestine').

What did we do?
This time we re-built a home for a family who are living in a refugee camp  near Bethlehem. They are currently  in very cramped accommodation: two rooms for up to 8 people and no outside space. There are often restrictions on water and Israeli soldiers frequently make incusions into the camp, preferably at night, and randomly search homes and interrogate the families. This family saved and bought land just outside the camp, and started to build their home. But before it was even finished it was reduced to rubble by the Israelis.

Why was the home demolished?
There is no functioning planning system in the areas of the west Bank adminisered by the Israelis (areas C and B), and 96% of planning applications are refused, while they are also inordinately expensive. So most homes are at risk of demolition, often without warning, but many Palestinians  have no other choice as there is no space to expand and accommodate the growing population in areas A (which are adminitered by the Palestinians). Or in this case the family lived in very substandard accommodation in the refugee camp. It doesn't help that the Israelis build thousands of homes in illegal settlements on Palestinian soil - these are not in danger of being demolished!

Who were involved in the re-build?
We were with a group of about 30 volunteers, mainly  from the UK. The re-build was organised by the Amos Trust in collaboration with the Holy Land Trust in Bethlehem. Each of the volunteers brought a minimum of £2000 to the project, much of it through fundraising. My very kind donors helped me to raise more than £3500! Thank you.....

What was it like building a house?
The family and the community in the camp were so kind to us and were so thankful for what we were doing. It was far more than building a house, it helped to give them hope and made them feel we cared. In our turn, we received much more than we gave - the kindness, generosity and friendship is something that will stay with me for the rest of my life and was truly humbling. There were some emotional times.....and we learned a lot about the plight of the refugees. Their stories are heartbreaking and truly appalling. Many are the descendants of the original refugees from 1948, as the original refugees are very old or have died. All their stories are similar: soldiers came to their homes shortly after the State of Israel was declared, ordering them to leave (often at gunpoint). They were told it would only be for a few weeks, for their own safety. But now it is 67 years later, most of the villages have been reduced to rubble or can't be found any more, and there has never been any offical recognition or compensation. This is an enormous injustice.

So there were tears and laughter, friendship and hard work, lots of great food, many stories and a lovely party at the end. And  we built the house! When we left for the UK it had walls, a roof, places ready for windows and doors and a balustrade across the top. The builders are now busy with the inside and we hope the family can move in fairly soon.

Photos
Below is a selection of photographs of the home we built, the builders, the family and more.We all became friends in a very short space of time - it was an amazing experience.

Early stages - creating the pillars

High on a ladder to make the pillars by putting the cement in the wooden structure

With Omar building a wall!

There were a lot of bricks.....

Walls are going up!

It was very cold some days - Yacoub helped to make a fire

The family came to make tea and help with the build

Moving thousands of bricks from the road to the building site - in long lines of volunteers

The bus got stuck in the mud after heavy rain - the weather was not always kind to us and we lost two days building due to heavy rain.

Creating the steel support in the roof

Learning how add some more bits of steel.....(no idea what these are called)

A view of the house with the roof structure amost done (but before the concrete was poored). In the background you can see the refugee camp.

We had a lot of visitors, including children. This boy is helping to gather stones for a boundary wall

Chatting and getting to know the community was an imporant part of the project. The local kids loved to come round after school to see what was going

Workers on the roof

The 'elephant' came to bring the concrete for the roof.

I am pooring a bit of concrete

 

After the concrete was poored into the roof structure, the surface had to be flattened

We raised the Palestinian flag and celebrated with a wonderful lunch and songs

We had wonderful food - generous portions and freshly made, Palestinian food is the best

We visited a school for boys in the camp - there was a great band!

A little girl in the refugee camp

A typical street view in the camp

A typical picture in the camp

The watch tower by the camp

There was a frequent need for coffee and tea. One of the girls from the family showed me how to make 'proper' Palestinian coffee

Great photo of Omar, one of the builders

Two of my favourite builders, Abed and Omar

Our leaders....they were wonderful and coped with all the last minute changes due to weather

A visit to Eastern Jerusalem, where we were shown the desparate situation of the Palestinians and the way the wall is used to divide the community and make work and transport impossible

The sign that greets you when you enter Palestinian territory

The spring flowers were beautiful

We were given beautiful Palestinian thank you presents

We planted two olive trees by the house

The group of volunteers on the last day of our visit

This is how far we got at the end of the visit - pretty good considering the amount of time we lost due to the weather. In the meantime it has progressed quite a lot more.