MEND began with two groundbreaking educational projects: outreach materials for Shara’ Simsim (Sesame Street), and a series of experimental workshops with twelve schools — “Strengthening Nonviolence in Jerusalem.” From the first day, work was participatory: a multi-sector workshop on violence in schools and creative solutions.
In its first year MEND worked with an entire class of forty-four children at Qalandia boys’ primary school. They wrote and produced a play later performed at the Palestine National Theatre and in summer camps across the West Bank. School work stayed holistic: training for the entire staff, including the principal, and focus on the most difficult class in each school.
Before MEND was one year old, a major project with eleven United Nations volunteers reached seven rural West Bank schools. Fourteen teachers and 150 girls studied reproductive health, realizing dreams, conflict resolution, and participatory video. The work consolidated MEND as a leading NGO working closely with the Ministry of Education and UNRWA.
A pioneering summer camp in Jifna brought Palestinians from the West Bank together with Black South Africans for training in nonviolence, internet, and film. Two larger camps followed, including children from the North of Ireland and Kenya. The last camp grew into the volunteer group “Menders” and their newsletter Impact. On the final day, balloons were released at the same moment in Jerusalem, South Africa, Ireland, and refugee camps in Lebanon.
MEND organised a week-long residential international group relations conference in Jericho with the International Forum for Social Innovation, the leading French NGO in the field.
With the return to violent conflict, school nonviolence turned to counselling and crisis management: training teachers and children, guidelines for adolescents, and libraries as after-school safe spaces. Girls from Choose a Future set up an emergency clinic in Silwad. MEND continued work everywhere it could, distributed Shara’ Simsim materials across the West Bank and Gaza, and kept co-facilitation training with the Truman Institute.
Films in Yatta and Halhul with local micro-regional planning committees led into “Empowering Women via Nonviolence Training and Participatory Video” (UNIFEM Trust Fund). The method of empowering women through nonviolence and film was consolidated; the films were shown around the world.
The schools programme expanded around Ramallah and Bethlehem. A prototype workshop and art project, “Stones for the Future of Palestine,” ran in refugee camps and schools. MEND also organised youth volunteer activities in the Ramallah area and set up a safe play area there.
“Bumper Stickers for Rationality” carried slogans in Arabic/English and Hebrew/English — reminders of common humanity, including “What about our children?” After the spring 2002 incursions, one-page guides helped families with trauma and basic first aid.
Mainstream activists asked for trainings in active nonviolence. MEND consolidated and expanded: series of trainings in each location, voluntary work, support and affinity groups, and youth groups of Menders.
In September 2004 an international consultation for women from the Middle East on nonviolence was held in Cyprus, with participants from as far as Afghanistan and Morocco. Thirty Palestinian youth went to Cyprus to learn about another people in conflict; in 2005 a smaller group went to Berlin for a peer-mediation summer camp.
Work with the Ministry of Education trained school counselors in nonviolence and conflict resolution. A new set of Sesame materials, “Sesame Stories,” included public service announcements and teacher training, with a high-profile launch in November 2005. The radio soap opera “Home is our Home” reached youth and gained a curriculum for teachers and ANV centres.
From the archive of programmes
Seventy-eight young Palestinians gathered at Talitha Kumi for the Menders summer camp “Leading the Way Together,” coming from Jenin, Qalqilya, Tulkarem, Ramallah, Jerusalem, Jericho, Izariyya, and Hebron. Drama, music, media, and nonviolence bound them into a national youth network. Funded through Save the Children’s Naseej project as a continuation of Ford Foundation support for the Menders.
MEND ran an early gender programme that shaped later work with women, youth, and community security — a pilot for approaches that would expand in the following decade.
After the Arab Spring, MENAPPAC members asked for tools grounded in Palestinian practice. MEND produced a regional nonviolence training manual with support from GPPAC, drawing on youth work and physical training experience.
Throughout Ramadan, MEND broadcast Hadutat al Balad — a 26-episode radio soap opera set in East Jerusalem — across the West Bank three times a day, raising awareness and empowering youth through local stories and sound.
One hundred Palestinian youth from East Jerusalem trained in nonviolence, conflict resolution, leadership, and project management — building skills for civic action in their own communities.
With Finn Church Aid, Rights First trained teachers in five East Jerusalem schools in a human rights curriculum developed with the Ministry of Education — motivating youth in a demoralized city with hope and systematic civic education.
As a regional partner in the global Participate initiative, MEND trained women in Al-Jib and Nabi Samuel whose short films about life under occupation were screened at United Nations Headquarters in New York.
Three years of work with women in Izariyya (Bethany) on the outskirts of East Jerusalem linked them with partners in Iraq and with the Women’s Parliament and the Arab Education Institute. Trainings covered nonviolence, UNSCR 1325, and media, ending in a regional women’s peacebuilding roundtable.
A two-phase school project in East Jerusalem — Old City, Shu’fat refugee camp, and a school for children with disabilities — trained teachers and students in tolerance, nonviolence, and human rights. Students ran peer campaigns and open human-rights days.
Palestinian nonviolent youth activists met Cerritos College in Southern California by digital video conference, exploring how to break stereotypes of violent Palestinian youth — and documenting the exchange on film.
Two projects worked with disaffected East Jerusalem youth from the Old City, Silwan, Issawiyya, and Sur Baher — training in active nonviolence, gender, media, and conflict management. Participants designed and ran their own neighbourhood projects, from a children's play day to murals and a nonviolence radio and video campaign.
Citizen-journalism and media-literacy training produced short films with private donors, alongside a new participatory-video gender pilot with women of Shu'fat refugee camp, made with PAX (Netherlands).
MEND trained teachers across sixteen oblasts in Kyrgyzstan in participatory video with the UN Peacebuilding Fund and GPPAC, while in Shu'fat refugee camp women made short films on daily life and the right to health and happiness, with Heinrich Böll and PAX.
Teacher training in storytelling and participatory video, and development of a training-of-trainers manual, with the Ghussein Foundation and GPPAC.
Media students and their teachers received MEND training in filming with a mobile phone, producing a series of short films that carried participatory media into everyday devices.
Participatory video with young men and women in Kalandia refugee camp examined masculinity through short films and discussion, with GPPAC.
A cyberbullying awareness campaign in Jerusalem schools produced a dedicated website, videos, and a play, with the Jerusalem Council for Development and Economic Growth (UAE).
Technical support and participatory-video training for youth as part of the "Line Up, Live Up!" awareness campaign, with UNODC.
As part of an EU-funded consortium, MEND promoted youth and women's engagement in local government across Palestine.
Participatory video with youth across Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, funded by PAX (Netherlands).
Nonviolence and participatory video work in Gaza, with PAX (Netherlands).
Women's rights and Women, Peace & Security work in the West Bank — nonviolence training, participatory video, and discussion, with PAX (Netherlands).
Training and group-building in active nonviolence, media literacy, citizen journalism, and gender across the West Bank, funded by PAX (Netherlands).
Palestinian youth engaged in critical discussions on masculinities and social norms, producing a series of videos on the theme.
Institutional support followed by the "Palestinian Women Lead the Way" project, funded by the Women's Peace & Humanitarian Fund (WPHF), producing four films.
The Menders network continues across the West Bank and Jerusalem. Participatory video programmes — masculinity, mental health, camera in hand, women lead the way — keep communities documenting their own stories and practising everyday nonviolence.
The work continues through Menders, trainers, and community partners across Palestine — education, media, and active nonviolence reinforcing each other.
