The women coming on the visit all have interesting insights into life in Palestine as well as great skills and knowledge to share!
Here are five of the great participants in their own words....
Saida Kurdieh is a third year student studying at Al Quds University:
"I study English Literature as a major and Gender Studies as a minor. I live in Jerusalem- Beit Hanina. My hobbies are swimming, drawing and painting, reading stories and novels. I'm interested in photography, making sweets and unfamiliar foods, poetry, and mythologies. This is the first time for me to travel, I'm so excited and happy for this trip and I would like to visit everything in London. I hope to finish my bachelors degree and continue to a masters degree in translation, also I dream to travel the world to see the whole world around me and to meet new people."
Isra'a Hinde is from Beit Sahour and a third year student at Al-Quds:
"I am majoring in International Law and Human Rights, my minor is Urban Studies. I love to read a lot, and sometimes I write small things that come to my mind. I love football and cooking but am not good at both of them, but am good at Dabkah and embroidering (Palestinian embroidery). I’m a very optimistic person so I have big dreams, I’m working hard for them and I’m sure inshallah that one day I will fulfil them. One of my dreams is that I want to be a Palestinian Ambassador, the first woman from Bethlehem in this high, powerful position, that through it, I will try to represent the Palestinian women. This is the first time for me to travel, and I can't imagine that when I will travel for the first time I will go to London. What do I want to visit in London? Or what is interesting in London? Hard question, I want to visit every place in London. What is interesting in London! Everything is interesting in London for me, I really love the old, original cities, the ones with great history and London is one of the biggest examples for that; I remember when my friends and I used to talk about traveling, the first thing we used to say "London baby"."
Hanin Yacoup is from Beit Jala, Bethlehem and also a third year student at Al-Quds:
"I study Human Rights and International Law as my major and Urban Studies as my minor at Al-Quds Bard college. I got so excited when I first heard about this trip, because by just traveling to another place to represent the Palestinian women is a proof in itself that we are not bounded by the walls or any other boundaries, we are not any more living in a bubble as many might think of us, it is our responsibility now to express what our mothers and grandmothers wanted to say, we should be the voice of the silent women.
One of my best things to do is to read books and to write stories or poems about different stuff. And this is one of the things that I’m going to do there, to have and tell real stories that happened with me facing the brutal occupation. I once wrote about my dreams and the first thing that came to my mind was to have a successful role within the refugees and the women organizations. Actually I've never visited any of the European countries, but I went to Egypt and Jordan two times. I think it will be different to visit a place like London to find yourself in a different culture and within a new people it seems to be difficult to the first glance, but this is the best way to discover yourself and your abilities."
Aisheh Hassan Firawe is a graduate who lives in the Old City, in Jerusalem.
"I graduated from Al-quds University ,studied social services, I work at the Saraya center for community services with literature children program aged 8-15 in addition to the skills of democracy and rights of child.
My hobbies are reading ,Palestinian Dabke ,cooking pastry-making and embroidery .
The most important of my dreams is the existence of youth-consciousness in the old city of Jerusalem under the difficult situations that children live,and also to raise awareness of women in certain matters which consist with the social conditions in Jerusalem.
This will be my second participation in the exchange of cultures, the first was when I was involved with the children for the exchange of culture between Palestine and France ,but now is the exchange of culture between British and Palestinian young women.
One of the main places that I would like to visit in England are the museums as every museum has a special character between culture and art."
Haya Allabadi is a third year student at Al-Quds and is from Abu Dis.
"I study Human rights and international law as a major and media studies as a minor. I would like to represent my country Palestine in London to tell the people about our difficult life under the occupation and to exchange culture between Palestinian and British young women . It is my honor to be one of the participating women to share in this experience.
I've been to many countries like Egypt ,Bulgaria ,USA and London for one time when I was 9 years old .I like drawing ,arts and making films ,I'm so excited to visit London again ,I'm looking forward to seeing you soon to share skills!"
We are excited to have such amazing women coming to visit and work with us...and we will have more from the other five participants also!
