By: Elizabeth Cooper
Summer 2009 Volunteer
“This past summer, I worked for the Women’s Humanitarian Organization (WHO) in Bourj and the Children and Youth Centre (CYC) in Shatila.  These organizations promote fun, informal activities for large groups of children.  The result is rather chaotic, energy filled sessions of running, screaming, and having fun.  Always interesting and productive, my time [...]

By: Carolina Vergara Lamarre
Bourj el Barajneh
Amidst the chaos that are my classes, full of energetic students who already told me they love ‘Miss Carolina’ as of the first period of class, and the discouraging and depressing reality of the camp, I try and find a balance between overwhelming feelings of happiness at the hospitality and [...]

By: Mohan Mishra
Bourj el Barajneh
We have just finished our fourth week of teaching here in Bourj el Barajneh, a Palestinian refugee camp near Beirut, Lebanon. I continue to be amazed at the people here and how friendly and welcoming they have been to all of us volunteers. You can hardly walk down the street without [...]

By: Mina Chung
Wavel
I’m in Wavel camp which is in the Bekaa valley, just outside of the city of Baalbek. Mountains surround us, and there is an easiness and breathing space here that is nonexistent in the congested camps in Beirut. Wavel was a former army base for French soldiers during the French colonial regime so [...]

By: Lindsey Marchessault
Bourj el Barajneh
It was very difficult for me to choose the subject for this report back to Canada from Bourj el Barajneh. So many things have happened since I have been here and there have been innumerable “defining moments” of the summer so far. To try to describe the entire experience and how [...]

By: Amal El Masri
Bourj el-Barajneh
“Teacher! Teacher!” Hiba pulls at my shirt while Mohammad clutches at my elbow while Omar pinches my cheek while Sahar, Rayan and Ahmad hug me from behind. “We want to plaayyyyy!” They demand in unison. Its fourteen minutes into class and already my nine-year olds have mutinied. “Get into two rows!” [...]

By: Shauna Trainor
I went to Lebanon to live and teach in a Palestinian refugee camp to get in touch with the reality of the Palestinian refugee situation, to observe the conditions of the camps, and to further understand the predicament the refugees face. Throughout my stay I increasingly came to realize all that I had [...]

By: Samer Abdel-Nour
Bourj El-Barajneh
In the early hours of Monday morning, I was woken by a terrible BOOM. The noise was enormous and shook the house and everything in it. It left me shivering, unable to move in my bed. My first thought was that there was an explosion in the camp, perhaps at one of [...]

By: Kathy Ramsey
Wavel
For me, being here has been an overwhelming experience. I have been astounded by the generosity of the people I’ve met, the sad stories they have about all the problems they face here in Lebanon and the dreams they all have to go back to Palestine. As volunteers teaching a few hours (or [...]

By: Christina Nitsou
Bourj el Barajneh
We have been in Bourj el Barajneh, a Palestinian refugee camp in Beruit, Lebanon for approximately two weeks now. The sights, the people, the atmosphere is indescribable because there is such a rich history and such hidden meanings to what meets the eye. I was and still am amazed at how [...]