Sansana (Meitar Crossing), South Hebron Hills
A tour of kindergartents in the Hebron hills with the opening of the school year
Purpose of the shift: clarification of the needs of the kindergarten in A-Tuwani, and meeting with Huda and Haula in the kindergarten in Hashim el Daraj.
Yom Kippur eve - closure
of arrivals to Israel. The parking lot at the Meitar checkpoint is empty. They warn that the checkpoint will closed at 1:30.
We went to the kindergarten in A-Tuwani. We met a kindergarten teacher we did not know, Suad, whom the village council has hired. They pay her salary. Suad is from Yatta and has learned to be a Kindergarten teacher (we did not ask where, when, how long). The kindergarten has about fifteen children, most of them aged five. Some are a little younger. The garden looked good, but is rather empty. Suad seems to be trying to put content into the teaching of the children but there is insufficient money and equipment. The village only provides the salary. Sometimes she is assisted by the school in the village. We agreed to try to help to supply garden equipment, and will also try to organize activities. There is also a water problem which is not clear to us. There is a container on the roof but it is empty. We will try to find out from the villagers why this is so.
We continued to Hashim-el-Daraj. We met Huda and Hula. The children had already left when we arrived.
The kindergarten started late, because the village school used the garden area for its needs In previous weeks. In the meantime, about thirty children are coming to the kindergarten. Sometimes more. We spoke of training options for the kindergarten teachers of Hashim-el-Daraj. In the meantime they did not receive the previous month’s salary and the and the one before it. Hamed, from the village group, is responsible for the implementation of he actual payment. We hope that we will be able to raise donations for this year's salaries. We agreed on starting activities this week.
On the way back, we stopped at Umm al-Kheir. Aziz wants to open the garden again. But we did not find him in the village.
We will also try to talk to him.