Women Volunteering in Palestine: Today at the Excellence Center, we had the opportunity to interview three women who are doing volunteer work with us. We hope you enjoy reading about their motivations in coming to Palestine and how their experience has been so far.

Lydia, a sociologist from Croatia, is volunteering in Palestine with the Excellence Center for two weeks. She has been interested in the Middle East for some time. Particularly, she is fascinated by the complexity of war, injustice, and history in Palestine. Rather than getting her information from textbooks or the media, she wanted to see for herself what life was like in Palestine. Living with a host family and volunteering by teaching English at the Excellence Center has been a valuable experience for her.

In addition to gaining insight about Palestinian daily life, Lydia was also motivation to visit Palestine to improve her Arabic language skills. Staying with a host family, conversing with staff members at the Excellence Center, and visit various places around Hebron have provided her with the opportunity to enhance her Arabic skills. Lydia says that she would love to come back to Palestine. She also said that in Hebron she has found many of the values she is missing at home. Instead of the focus being on money and materialistic items, she found an emphasis on friendship and common goals during her time in Palestine.

Susan, from the United States, is another international volunteer that is currently with us in Palestine at the Excellence Center. Susan is a Pre-Med student as well as a student of Middle Eastern Studies. She is here for one week, with her friend, Diana. Despite being in Hebron for only one week, she is very enthusiast about her stay. She speaks fluent Arabic and has been to Palestine before. During her previous trip to Palestine, she was looking at her stay from the perspective of the occupation. Now, she wants to get a more genuine view of Palestine by experiencing normal, daily life in Palestine. For her volunteer work at the Excellence Center, Susan is conducting workshops on healthcare.

Diana, like Susan, is from the United States and also a Pre-Med student. She was motivated to volunteer with the Excellence Center because she liked the idea of combining meaningful work with the personal experience of staying with a host family. She tells us that both of her expectations were met during her time in Hebron. She is very glad about her decision to come to Palestine. In her hometown in New York, Diana was involved with a Resettlement Agency and she really wanted to see for herself what the situation in Palestine was like. Diana is partnering with Susan to provide workshops on healthcare and she has enjoyed the opportunity to get involved in the community. With their host family, Diana and Susan have visited to the countryside, practiced their Arabic, and overall enjoyed their trip to Hebron. Women Volunteering in Palestine 

Women Volunteering in Palestine (Lydia, Susan, and Diana), all come from different backgrounds and have slightly different motivations that pushed them to come to Palestine. We are thankful for their contribution to the Excellence Center during these past couple weeks. We wish them all the best in the future and hope they return to Palestine one day soon to visit us again!