Science festival in Palestine : one more step toward empowering Palestinian youth for active citizenship
We are proud to announce that the first Science Festival has been achieved with great success. This Festival has been created by Paris-Montagne together with the network of French Cultural Centres in Palestine and Palestinian Universities. More than 8 000 kids from 6 different cities attended the festival. This leads us to consider the opportunity to contribute to a second event to be held around November 2011. More information will be posted soon about these future pespectives.
A wonderful success for a first event :
From the 2nd to the 10th of November 2010, 8 000 kids attended the festival, half of them being from refugee camps, in collaboration with UNRWA. The festival took place in 6 cities (Gaza, Jerusalem, Bethleem, Hebron, Nablus, Ramallah). The closing ceremony has been held in Ramallah on the 10th of November, which is the World Science Day for Peace and Development. It is interesting to note that through our event and the support of UNESCO we showed that not only recent scientific advancement contribute to peace and development but that sharing scientific culture contributes too.
On an educational perspective, the kids were highly interested in the workshop. The school teachers expressed their will to develop this kind of hands-on activities and are looking for partnerships. In the context of the cooperation with French NGO, some of the contents (exhibits translated in Arabic, games, etc) have been left to be used by local schools. The activities raised not only the enthusiasm of kids, but also of teachers, professors, university student passing by, but also staff in charge of the logistics of schools and universities. For example in Hebron Polytechnic University, some security staff of the university has been instructed on the spot to deliver workshops about physics and chemistry.
The festival also saw the major contribution of universities and in particular Al Quds and An Najah universities who created on their own many workshops. A first training session to science communication, delivered by Paris Montagne, and organised for Palestinian students helped us seize the enthusiasm they have and they request for more training of this kind. This would allow this youth to be fully autonomous to organise events of this kind in the future.
The actors and the funds for the first Palestinian Science Festival
The event has been conceived as a collaboration between the network of the French Cultural Centres and Paris Montagne Association, a French NGO with expertise in using science communication as a tool for empowering young people in socially disadvantaged areas (French suburbs), and in areas of conflict (Ex-Yougoslavia).
The network of the French Cultural Centres dealt with the local logistics (finding places where to present the exhibits and workshops) and organised the venue of the public (contact with refugee camps, public or private schools and organization of buses to bring children to the location of the festival). The Cultural bureau of French Consulate in Jerusalem centralised all funding issues as well.
In partnership with the network of the French Cultural Centres, Paris Montagne Association has been in charge of the general conception of the event, of reviewing and selecting content proposals from French as well as Palestinian science communication institutions. Moreover Paris Montagne mentored a group of four French high-school students from it own program (Science Academy program) who contributed by creating a show about immunology, in French and Arabic.
The event has been financially funded by the Arab Bank, the Cultural bureau of French Consulate in Jerusalem, La Voix de l'Enfance NGO, the City of Ivry, the city of Ramallah. The overall budget of this first event has been as little as 45 000 euros. Many NGO and institutions also contributed by sending volunteers or offering contents for free.
