Let us be tolerant

This is a slogan raised by the participants in the training course held by the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution in cooperation with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on the first of January 2011. The course is part of the series of activities and events of the project "Child protection teams", with the participation of 100 volunteers from 50 partner organisations including the family centres in the Gaza Strip, and over two weeks it was held in the Centre's training halls in Gaza and the South. The course aimed at making the volunteers aware of how to provide psychological support and how to deal with children in difficult circumstances. The course, run by Mrs. Inshirah Zaqout, Dr. May Nayfa and Mrs. Wafaa Shaqliya, covered various strands, among them the skills of working with children, tolerance and peacebuilding, psychodrama, dealing with children in difficult circumstances and protection mechanisms. The participants expressed their great admiration for the course's subjects and how much they had benefited from attending. Nour Al-Huda Abu Assi, one of the trainees, said she had gained information and experience she had not learned at university or at school, such as how to be tolerant and the benefit that comes to us from practising tolerance among ourselves, and the methods of psychodrama. It is noted that this project began on the twenty-fifth of July 2010 and continues until 25/01/2011. The project's final results aim at increasing the child's awareness and preparing him to face difficult situations.