Contact Information
- Where – Palestine (The Middle East)
- Website – www.care-palestine.com
- Contact Person – Dr. Ghassan Abdallah
- Email – care@palnet.com
- Address – P.O. Box 17421, Al Quds Street, Opposite Orabi Motors, Ramallah, East Jerusalem
- Other – carepalestine@gmail.com
Areas of Expertise
The Centre for Applied Research in Education has expertise in a range of areas, including:
Main Aims and Objectives
CARE was established in 1989, through the initiative of educationalists and intellectuals. It is a nonprofit, voluntary institution whose objective is to initiate and promote activities that lead to the development of democracy, civic society, culture, and a more human world. The foundation’s work mainly focuses on providing democratic knowledge and educating teachers, students, parents’ councils and elementary school children. Since 1989, CARE has initiated numerous programs and activities in cooperation with international institutions.CARE’s primary areas of focus are:
- Non-violent conflict transformation
- Human rights and democracy education
- Trauma recovery and healing
- Dialogue skills to combat hatred and incitement
Upholding the Principles of Conflict Transformation
Establishing a permanent peace in the Middle East has proven to be a difficult and complicated undertaking. Today with the spread of violent confrontation and the lack of dialogue techniques , and beyond the difficult and sensitive modalities of peace making, the lingering effects of more than six decades of occupation and dispossession, fear and destruction have added a meaningful obstacle to the peace process. As a result, educational efforts must be intensified . Education has a meaningful and formative impact on Palestinian identity and perceptions. CARE believes that education should be a tool to promote diversity, tolerance , democracy teaching and human rights education.
The curriculum on both sides to the conflict, however, evokes cognitive and emotional reactions that reinforce adversarial attitudes. Consequently, the ‘knowledge’ and perception of the other is often limited to selected negative images, harmful stereotypes and, at best, a distorted understanding of the other’s culture and religion.
The ultimate success of peace will depend on the capability of both ethnic groups to live and work together; not just side by side, but in close cooperation of amicable interaction and in mutual respect. Any attempt to establish a permanent peace in the Middle East will have to address education as an influential factor, and this requires sensitive and flexible educational planning on both sides.
CARE promotes the realization of human rights and mutual understanding are, among others,workshops, round tables or seminars, and exhibitions organized in cooperation with local or international institutions and the school administrative bodies. The training workshops offer training in teaching methodologies on how to introduce the issue of human rights and democracy concepts into primary and secondary classes. CARE representatives also regularly participate at conferences and seminars focused on human rights and civic education.
Where and with Whom
CARE works with local and international partners, in full coordination with the Palestinian Ministry of Education, the Teachers’ Union and Palestinian Women’s Committees. CARE works with, amongst others, students, teachers, parents councils and schools.CARE’s work is not limited only to the West bank and Gaza, but it also works in Israel in full cooperation with the Palestinian-Israeli Peace Forum, as CARE leads the Education Committee within this Forum.
Main Activities in the Field of Conflict Transformation
- Hold Joint Palestinian-Israeli conflict transformation activities for teachers, students and school principals.
- Human rights education (round tables and seminars) – including training in teaching methodologies on how to introduce human rights and democracy concepts into primary, secondary school classrooms. Since 1991, more than 900 teachers from throughout the West Bank and Gaza have participated directly in this ongoing project.
- Distribution of teacher training materials to educators.
- Conferences and seminars focused on human rights and civic education – including ‘Non-violence Communication in the Classroom’, ‘Available Educational Services’, ‘Methods of Communicating with Pupils’ and ‘Education: A Modern Approach to Peaceful Resistance’.
- Preparing and publishing manuals – including ‘An Educational Plan to Implement the Convention of the Human Rights of The Child’, ‘The Effects of Israeli Closures on Palestinians’, the ‘Role of Education in Promoting Democracy’, the ‘Role of the School in Promoting Social Cooperation, ‘The Phenomena of Violence Communication in School’ and ‘Facing School Violence Through Creative Thinking’.
