Community library as a pedal to community education and sustainable development

Abstract

Trust Programs offers various services to marginalized groups in Palestinian society, especially to villages located in the North West region of Jerusalem. These villages are situated behind the Annexation Wall which isolates them from the other urban areas, making it difficult to access transport or to attain social services with closures and check-points restricting movement. People in these villages also have no or limited access to schools and other educational institutions. Beginning with this scenario, Trust Programs continued for the second year working with village communities to establish a community school in cooperation with the Palestinian Ministry of Education (MOE). At a later stage the school established a community library in Al-Jeeb Village as a model, which was copied by other villages in the area. The paper will present the development of the community library of Al Jeeb, beginning with the Mother-to-Mother program which aims to raise awareness of mothers and families in the importance of education for their children and to prepare families for the entry of their children to schools. With the success of the first program a second one, Learn by play, was introduced through the community library. This program is based on the premise that every child has the right to learn, is considered a prerequisite for entry to other community based programs and as a lever for life-long learning. The program aims at limiting illiteracy and decreasing the dropout rate from schools and operates on three levels which involve parents, teachers and young women volunteers, with the child as the centre of the activity, thus creating relationships based on cooperation and understanding to work for the child's best interest.