jerusalem

Challenge no.50

The Workers Advice Center Rolls Up Sleeves

Fourteen members of WAC's temporary (pre-election) steering committee met on May 23 to plan the Center's actions for the coming months. They represented five branches of the organisation: Nazareth, Majd al-Krum, Uzeir-Rummane, Haifa and Jaffa. The members decided to make regular visits to employment bureaus in the Arab villages, where hundreds look for jobs. Workers complain that the clerks humiliate them. WAC's co-ordinators have successfully intervened in some cases. In fulfilment of an earlier decision, on June 6 WAC undertook a series of lectures to train its members in labor rights. Attorney Ra'ed Hindi discussed these rights in connection with layoffs. WAC is offering priority to its members' children in registration for the Annual Summer Camps at Majd al-Krum and Jaffa.

Mothers' Schools on Educational Trips

Both of the Mothers' Schools in Majd al-Krum and Jaffa have conducted their educational trip for the Spring Term. On June 22, the Majd al-Krum mothers visited the refugee camp at Balata (near Nablus). As guests of the refugee committee, they met with Jihad Tirawi and Gassan Khader. Their camp tour included a women's training center initiated by UNRWA. Jaffan mothers visited the Early Childhood Center in East Jerusalem and met with Suheil Omari. They then continued to Sunbula, a Fair Trade Association, located in Saint Andrew's Hospice in Jerusalem. Sunbula markets women's traditional handicrafts, especially needlework. Hiba Abu Arfeh and Rula Kleibo described the difficulties women have in marketing their embroideries, because the blockade keeps them out of Jerusalem.