PalSpain – Spain (IFMSA-Spain); Palestine (IFMSA-Palestine)

Name of the activity: PalSpain

Country/NMO: Spain (IFMSA-Spain); Palestine (IFMSA-Palestine)

Program: Emergency, Disaster Risk & Humanitarian Action

Type of the activity: Education

General description:

PalSpain was born as a space of discussion, reflection and approach to the palestinian-israeli conflict through the experience of students in situ. This way, we hope to promote awareness about the situation of constant violation of Human Rights that the Palestinian people is living nowadays.
The target groups and beneficiaries of the activity are the university community, refugee children, and indirectly kids’ relatives and participants in the project.
Its main objectives are: to know the day a day reality in Palestine, to promote breaks from routine and friendship among children from the camp and to acquire medical knowledge.
In orther to achieve these objectives we divide the activity in three parts: pre-ground organization (fundraising), stay in ground (summer camp and clinical practices) and post-ground organization (disemination of awareness and sensibilization).
We evaluate the activity through different questionaries and SWOT analysis.

Focus area:

International humanitarian law

Problem statement:

PalSpain was born as a space of discussion, reflection and approach to the palestinian-israeli conflict through the experience of students in situ, with the following analysis and spreading of the acquired knowledge. This way, we hope to promote awareness, especially of the university community, about the situation of constant violation of Human Rights that the Palestinian people is living nowadays. We consider imperative that the violation of Human Rights, International Laws and people´s DIGNITY, regardless of their condition of any kind, must be denounced.

Target groups and beneficiaries:

PalSpain’s main target group is the university community. However, any person interested can benefit from the talks given over the year.
Our work on the ground has also got direct beneficiaries: refugee children whom our two-weeks-lasting summer camp is organised for. This also brings satisfaction and gratitude from kids’ relatives, who become indirectly benefited.
Last but not least, participants in the project ourselves get benefited too.

Objectives and indicators of success:

Main objective: to make a team of students as complete as possible in Human Rights and international politics learning by following a “peer to peer” education model.
– Get to know the day a day reality in Palestine.
– To filter the information obtained from the media.
– To break barriers and prejudices about arab culture and muslims.
– To acquire capacity of judgment of International Community’s and UN.
Summer camp’s objectives:
– To teach the children different skills, structured in four fields: physical activities, languages, creativity and artistic expression.
– To promote breaks from routine and friendship among children from the camp.
– To favour the cultural exchange derived from contact among people from different countries.
Clerkship objectives:
– To learn about the differences between Palestinian and Spanish Health System and, indirectly, about differences between Palestinian and Israeli Health System.
– To acquire medical knowledge.
– To witness and to try to alleviate the consequences of the occupation and the militarization in Palestine.

Methodology:

The estimated number of participants for each edition is approximately twelve people. Two or three of these are reserved for veterans, as they are essential to ensure a correct coordination and organisation.
PalSpain is divided in three main pillars:
1. Pre-ground organization. Includes the months before the trip to Palestine, that is, the period of time in which the major part of the fundraising tasks take part.
2. Stay in ground. It is a full month, in summer, dedicated to living with the Palestinian community. This period includes two parts: children’s camp with refugee kids from Aida Camp and clinical practices in palestinian hospitals.
3. Post-ground organization. This is the period in which we are dedicated to the dissemination of what we lived and learned in Palestine through the organization of talks, activities, sessions, discussions, cinefórums, trainings etc for awareness and sensibilization about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The preparation of this action plan requires nothing more than fundraising and logistical support in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Plans for evaluation:

The initial interest of new participants is assessed, in part, by the motivation letter needed to join the project. Once in Palestine, a daily evaluation will be made to comment on the activities, points to be improved or areas to reinforce. At the end of the camp, the evaluation will be repeated, both with the monitors in a feedback way, and among the members of the team, to know what to improve in future editions. A similar protocol will be followed with the clinical practices and training sessions received, in order to suppress, modify or repeat any of these activities.
Once back in Spain, each volunteer should complete a questionnaire with general questions about coexistence, activities and organization of the project. The questionnaire includes 12 questions such as: What have you learnt about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict? Or: Do you think organisation has been good? Why yes/not?
To sum up, we use SWOT analysis (an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), to get our evaluation’s results.