Back in 2006, Palestinian youngsters were throwing volleys of stones at the PRCS psycho-social support center located in the Old City of Hebron. The newly founded center was far from making unanimity amongst the neighborhood dwellers. The empty premises of the first weeks symbolized the general defiance and could have looked like a testimony of a misadventure.
The center has come a long way since that time. After many years of advocacy and efforts, the children of yesterday are now the volunteers of today. The center has become an integral part of its neighborhood and paramount to alleviate the suffering of thousands of Palestinian youngsters.
As Mosa Abu Jaraish relates:“Palestinian youngsters are scared of settlers and the center is seen as one of the safest places in the Old Town”. Mosa is the director of the center and a strong advocate for psycho social work in Hebron. He only speaks Arabic but was more than willing to share his stories. “The center gathers Hebron’s kids and give them a peaceful environment to watch TV, draw, play, have social activities while also allowing our staff to do their work”.
When he talks about “work”, he talks mainly about counseling and raising awareness campaigns. The 8 staff and 30 volunteers have been formed to provide psycho-social counseling to change perceptions and reduce anxiety. They do free-of-charge individual or groups’ therapies, workshops and group activities.
There is no better place in Palestine than Hebron to have a true glance of what the Israeli occupation really means. In this city of roughly 250,000 Palestinians, 400 to 500 Israeli settlers live entrenched in the Old City protected by Israeli soldiers. Violence, fear, intimidation are constant features for Palestinians residing in the H2 Israeli-controlled area. Settlers wander in the streets harassing Palestinians verbally and physically, tagging walls of hatred graffiti and throwing garbage at passers.
“Youngsters come here with anxiety problems and even post-traumatic stress disorders. When you grew up in this
kind of environment, this has certainly effects on your mental health as well as in your relationships with others and the way you cope with reality” asserts Mosa. How could he be wrong? The youngsters’ population visiting the center has grown exponential since its inception due to all these problems. From a few hundred in the first years, nearly 12,000 of them benefited from the center’s services last year.
In order to help those kids, providing a safe haven where they can vent off their frustrations is not enough; the center
has to reach beyond its borders in the community as well. Hence, it started to work directly with school kids from the 5th and 6th grades and their teachers. Providing the same services as it does in the center, staff also coach teachers on new methods to deal with their students.
The three main goals of the programme are: confidence, safe-playing and tolerance. Reaching so far 13 schools in Hebron, it is already showing results. As Mosa argues, students achieve better results in school and the general level of anxiety is diminishing. This programme is however only one of the means the psycho-social support center uses to reach communities.
In parallel, the center facilitates the contact between parents with troubled kids and other organizations working in the related field. This is part of an effort to enhance the efficiency of social services in the Hebron governorate and to provide parents with maximum support. Another aspect of this effort is to send the center’s social workers in sub branches of the governorate. They can thus reach villages and remote locations that have seldom access to that kind of services.
Life is not easy in Hebron. Feelings of frustration, fear, anger, anxiety and sadness are deeply rooted among
Hebron’s youth. Almost everything in the H2 zone reminds them that they live under occupation. Meanwhile, even if it cannot change the core variables, the PRCS psycho-social support center is there to help and alleviate part of this suffering.
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