Democratic Palestine : 11 (ص 17)
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- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 11 (ص 17)
- المحتوى
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Mass Work
Shadia Abu Ghasala Nursery
In «Democratic Palestine» no.8 we wrote an article about the Shadia Abu Ghasala Nursery. Since the
distribution of this issue was partially blocked and most of you did not receive it, we reprint this article.
In January 1984, the PFLP
Womens Bureau opened a nursery in
Yarmouk camp, Damascus. It is named
Shadia Abu Ghasala Nursery in honor of
the first woman martyr in the PFLP, who
was killed in 1969, in Nablus, while pre-
paring for struggle against the Zionist
occupation.
There was a dual motivation for
establishing the nursery: On the one
hand was the conviction that it is more
progressive for children to grow up ina
group; that child development, both
socially and intellectually, is enhanced in
a collective environment; and that chil-
dren should be raised with an under-
standing of their national cause and
revolution. In the long-range view, rais-
ing the new generation to be strong,
healthy and mentally alert is part of the
Ongoing struggle to liberate Palestine
and establish a democratic state.
On the other hand, the Womens
Bureau sought to support working
mothers and give more women a chance
to work outside the context of home and
family, as a component of women’s lib-
eration which is also of utmost impor-
tance in advancing the revolution.
Traditionally in the Arab society,
few women work outside the context of
home and family. However, in this gen-
eration more and more wish to do so due
to political involvement, economic
necessity and the desire for a richer and
more independent life. In Yarmouk
camp there is actually a relatively high
percentage of working women. Yet this
ta
can be at the expense of the children; in
the absence of sufficient childcare
facilities younger children are left in
the charge of older ones; many girls of
ten years and up are responsible for
households in the daytime. While there
are a fair number of kindergartens in and
around Yarmouk camp, there is very lit-
tle childcare for the youngest. It was this
fact that the Womens Bureau took into
consideration when deciding to open a
nursery rather than a kindergarten. In
addition, there was the fact of close
cooperation with the DFLP which was
opening a kindergarten where children
from Shadia Abu Ghasala nursery can
continue when they reach three years of
age. On the other hand, the DFLP kin-
dergarten had some very young children
who were referred to the PFLP nursery.
The great need for a nursery was
proven by its immediate full enrollment.
This occured simply by passing the
news of its opening by word of mouth
among comrades, _ friends and
neighbors. Since that time, there has
been a long waiting list. The Womens
Bureau would like to meet this need by
expanding the nursery, but is currently
prevented by lack of funds. Early
childcare is especially crucial as most
Palestinian women have at least three
children. This means that without
childcare she would wait about ten years
before finding a job, and it can often be
difficult to start at that point.
Aims and program
The nursery opens at 7 a.m. and a
bus makes rounds in the camp to pick up
the children. The nursery aims to
develop the children according to what is
possible at their age level. Obviously, for
the smallest this comes through contact
with the staff members who take time to
speak and sing to the children while
meeting their physical needs. When the
child is one year and a half, toilet training
begins in coordination with the family's
wishes.
For the older children there are
more structured activities to develop lan-
guage and motor skills. In a conversa-
tion with us, the nursery’s director stres-
sed that the optimal time is the morning
when the children are most alert. There-
fore, activities are set early with
emphasis on teaching songs, dancing,
rhythmic movement and circle games.
Also there is story-telling and simple
puppet theatre. Songs and stories pro-
vide an avenue to teach about Palestine & - هو جزء من
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