Building Bridges in Israel
November 25, 2006
Service and Community in the Middle East
In early December, Middle East participants and Leaders in Training (LITs) from the 2006-2007 Building Bridges for Peace (BBfP) program came together for their first weekend retreat in Beer Sheva.
On the first day of the retreat, participants took part in two workshops that emphasized transitioning home and their goals and expectations for the retreat. The second day, participants attended a volunteers’ panel. Panelists shared their experiences as volunteers in the Beer Sheva area and talked about challenges, failures, and accomplishments. After the panel, participants went on a tour around two Bedouin villages, visiting both a recognized and an unrecognized village. The tour was followed by a visit to the “Women for Laqia Organization,” an organization that opens work opportunities to Bedouin women.
The final program of the day was a problem-solving workshop, in which participants were divided into their home groups. The groups discussed problems in their community and different ways to solve them. Participants were able to come up with some great ideas for their individual projects by participating in this brainstorming session.
Participants also discussed their individual project goals in relation to the problems within their society on the final day of the retreat. After the workshop, participants went bowling to have some fun together. At the close of the retreat, participants were asked to take a look at the goals they had identified at the beginning of the weekend, and share with the group what they had accomplished, what they hadn’t accomplished and why.
"The thing I learned most from this weekend is to put your goals in front of your eyes and mind and to make it true" .
Middle East retreat participant
Building Bridges in Israel Archive
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