Let’s meet 22 year old Amir from Algeria. He has come to Palestine the ‘long way round’ from Switzerland, where he is studying engineering in Lausanne. Amir is yet another young person who has decided to spend precious time in Palestine, participating in the Volunteer and Learn Arabic program in Palestine with the Excellence Centre.
Amir spent one month in Palestine (2016) as he’d wanted to visit the area for quite some time. Seeing Jerusalem was a big draw card for him but the other motivating factor was to have first-hand experience of the conditions under which the Palestinian people are living. To see exactly what is happening on the grounds was considered to be critical for Amir. He wanted to know:
“what exactly is the situation with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to see it with my own eyes”.
The time at the Excellence Centre was quite busy for Amir as he gave English lessons and helped with a whole range of tasks at the Centre. As well as this he took Arabic lessons and put what he learnt into daily practice. Overall, Amir felt that the experience allowed him to greatly improve his Arabic and to grow as a person. It was:
“a valuable life experience and I will learn a lot, in many aspects. It will be a little contribution. A drop of water in the ocean, but if everyone does a little something, change can happen”.
So why don’t you join Amir, and bring about a little bit of change in Palestine through the Excellence Centre.
