Buy Our Products

Children draw their dreams on sails.
They write their name as captain,
and the name of their village as the destination.

Each boat is handcrafted and about the size of one’s palm.

Al-Awda / Return Boats is a project by and for the children of Nahr El-Bared.

It is inspired by Nubian children in Aswan.

The Power of the Creative Arts: This Film captures the work & experiences of participants engaged in an experiential workshop utilizing the creative arts within a therapeutic context. The workshop made use of projective techniques to explore the inner worlds of the participants. Key to the work was the process itself, a process that focused on creating a safe space to begin exploring the internal fabric of roles we play and the roles that shape the stories we tell ourselves and others.

“Away from Home Again” is a learning & creative expression odyssey by displaced young Palestinian refugees from Nahr El-Bared camp, Lebanon.

A photo-voice chronicle of the trials & tribulations of refugee children at a time of war & displacement; their efforts to express & transform their precarious lives, & their participation in their community’s efforts to rebuild their lives & their camp.

Over the span of three years (2007-2009), the children in this journey worked with specialists to become photo-journalists, filmmakers, creative writers & artists.

Their productions are a testament to the transformative power of art and the creative energies of young people at times of crisis.

Ya darna yamm al-shadjar lkhzar
Palestinian folktales & songs remembered & compiled after half a century of living in exile.

Proceeds will support the work of an NGO working with Palestinian children in Gaza Strip.

July 14th, 2006
Israel launches a massive attack on Lebanon that ended in displacing more than one million persons. During the 33 days war some families take refugee in a theater in the capital city of Beirut. This film shows the transformative ability of the arts and its healing powers.

The Seasons of Janana film is a journey with children in active learning, fun and creativity. Janana is a campaign to develop child-friendly libraries and promote fun-learning and creativity in disadvantaged communities in Lebanon.

Children, maybe even more than adults, have the need to speak, to tell, to show. During the workshops focusing on expression, AL-JANA invited them to express themselves, to speak about themselves through their writings.

For the last five years children and youth have been meeting on Friday mornings at Al Jana to investigate art processes, draw from the figure, the man-made and natural world and experiment with different two and three dimensional design concepts.

Artistic Works of Camps’ youth showing the unfamiliar in the familiar.

Films

• Haweyeh Zarqa – Video Clip : Eien el-Hilweh camp
• Lan Armosh: Kasmmeyeh Camp
• Why Not? : Shatilla camp
• Khattat : Al Baddawi camp & Nahr El-bared camp

Songs

• Tanhedeh Kelmeh : Borj el-barajneh
• Howeyeh Zarqa : Eien el-Hilweh camp

This video and book are the result of a 5 years musical journey that Al Jana has taken with a group of Palestinian and Lebanese KG teachers. It was created in response to their wish to have a creative music book directed at working with very young children which used music to support other areas of the curriculum.

Through lively anecdotes and behind the scene accounts we get an inside view of the creative process that went into the making of the various films, animation and photo-essays produced by Palestinian children over the last 4 years as part of the Palestinian Youth Record their Lives and Express their Hopes Project.

A Palestinian family settles in a new exile in Lebanon after fleeing Kuwait during the Gulf War.

The children raised with the epic tales of thier grandfather’s heroism in the defense of Palestine,
finally meet him but only for one day, before he dies.

The young brothers try to transcend their predicament as refugees by spending their holidays productiviely, inspired by the girl that created beautiful ritual out
of the grandfather of her grandmother.

Ya baldna Leish Hajartina – Active Learning Pack

Editorial

• The history of palestinian Oral History: Individual Vitality and Institutional Paralysis by Rosemary Sayigh

Interviews

• Gaby Abed, recorded in Yafa, October 26,1998
• Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, recorded in Ramallah June 12, 2000
• Jamil Arafat, recorded in Mashhad, April 14, 2000

“I dreamt that my grandmother held me by the hand and flew with me to Palestine.” She looked down and said “This is our village my grandson.” I descended and she continued her flight.

Palestine grows roots with the forth generation of refugee children when the memories of the uprooting of 1948 become experiential learning activities for youth.

Their research & creative expressions become proactive resources for other children.

We’re deprived from playing because of the landmines, and our families are not
able to cultivate the land.” (Doha, 12-years old, from Aiyta el Shaab)

The young writers of the scenario enter the film as a group of friends whose day dreams become a reality. Mohammed, the journalist, covers the young photo-journalists’s exhibit in the camp, Rabab flies across all borders, Muna becomes a doctor, Walid finally sings on stage and Zeinab directs the film.

Scenario by the young Filmmakers:
Rabab Abdel Hadi, Zeinab Keizaran, Mohammad Azzouka, Muna Zaaroura, Walid Balqis

The reality of life in the refugee camps blocks the dreams of children and becomes a nightmare for Halim. He is thinking of leaving school to support his family, while his friends spend the vacation acting as fortune-tellers.

Scenario by the young Filmmakers:
Ahmed Al-Shouli, Bachir Hussein, Jamal Mohamad, Mohamed Halimeh

“I wish I were a bird” : young photo-voices from the camp is another production put together by the “young photo-journalist” team.

File

• Cultural Life in Palestine before the Uprooting

Interviews

• Memories of Jaffa: An interview with the poet Mahmoud el-Hout.
• Establishing a Palestinian film archive: Dialogue with filmmaker Qais-al-Zubaydi.
• Researching the memory of space: An interview wtih Dr. Mahmoud ‘Issa

From our archives

• Oral testimonies and songs from 1948 Palestine.

Article

• Oral history is an activist project: “Concrete details” and the “human factor”.
• The young journalists’ exhibition Book Reviews: Bab al-Shams, a novel by Elias Khoury.
• Being an Internal Refugee: Palestinian Refugees 1948-1998 by Dr. Adel Hussayn Yahya

Editorial

• Oral History is an Activist Project: “Concrete Details” and the “Human Factor” by Kirsten Scheid

Interviews

• Oral History for Palestinians: The Beginning of a Discipline by Rosemary Sayigh
• The continuous, Permanent Connection by Bayan Al-Hout

Guides to Doing an Oral History Project

• How to Undertake an oral History Project: PANOS Guidelines for Oral History Collection.
• Oral History and the Palestinian Community in Lebanon by Rosemary Sayigh

From Our Collection

• The Tale of the Ful Seller’s Daughter , a popular tale
• The Cleverness of Abu al-Husayn , a popular tale
• Imm Nafidh’s Story of the Hijra

Oral Testimony File

• “This Illiterate Woman, She Talked to Us” Participants’ Responses to Al-Jana’s 1948 Uprooting Oral History Project
  Summary And Evaluation by Kirsten Scheid
• Further Readings

About Al-Jana and Its Activities

• The Use of Oral History in Activities with Children

Articles

• Hafia in Puplis of My Eyes: A Meeting with the Poet of Hafia, Hassan Al-Buheriy by Ali Al-Cordi
• Memories of Childhood in Hafia by Ranada Farah
• The Art of Palestinian Embroidery: A Dialogue with the Artist Haykia Awad by Ali Al-Cordi

The Collective Memory File

• Palestinian Oral History Archives : Testimonies on the 1948 Nakba
• Palestinian Folk Archive: Original Folklore Texts (Popular Songs and Tales)

Cultural And Educational Institutions

• Popular Art Center / Al-Bireh.

Articles

• Palestine As Remembered by the “Shaikh” of Popular literature in Lebanon, Salam Al-Rasi by Jaber Suleiman
• Mahmoud Dakwar’s Collection: An Ethnographic museum for the Palestinian collective memory by Jaber Abu Hawash
• The Instrument of Abusrdity, “Al-Arghul” by Ali Al-Cordi
• Learning with Cultural Heritage: Textbooks on Palestinian folk tales and songs
• NGO Profile: The National Institute for Social Care and Training / Beit Atfal Al-Somud by Zeinab Saqallah

Palestinian Oral History File

• Remembering the Near East Broadcasting Station in pre-1948 Palestine (Part 2)

Articles

• NGO Profile: Tamer Institute for Community education in Palestine by Zeianb Saqallah
• Zajjal by Assad Said
• Yusra Jawharieh ‘Arnita, Musicologist
• Abu Arab, Popular and Singer

From Our Collection

• Folk Tales and Songs

Palestinian Oral History File

• Remembering the Near East Broadcasting Station in pre-1948 Palestine (Part 1)

Articles

• Folk Songs Sung in Villages Wedding in Palestine by Mahmoud Muflih al-Baker
• Palestinian Folklore: Superstitions about Bread by Jaber Suleiman
• NGO Profile: The Association for the Development of Palestinian Camps / Lebanon by Zeinab Saqallah

Files on Oral History

• Oral history and Palestinian Collective Memory by Sonia El-Nimr
• Oral History and Palestinian Community by Rosemary Sayigh
• Interview with Bayan al-Hout
• Interview with Rosemary Sayigh
• Interview with Julie Peteet
• The Use of Oral History in Activities with Young Adolescents by Moa’taz al-Dajani
• An Annotated Bibliography: Palestinian Studies
• Using Oral History
• Book Reviews of Oral History Texts

From Our Collection
Folk Tale: The King and the Porter

Article
The Bridegroom as the Hero

Institutions of Heritage
Palestinian Folklore Center / The Society of In’ash El-Usra – Bireh / Palestine.

File of this Edition
Dr. Tawfiq Canaan (1882-1964); The Pioneer of Folk Studies in Palestine.

Editorial

• The First Harvest by Jaber Suleiman

Palestinian Embroidery

• Al-Jana Symposium on Embroidery by Rose Shoumali
• An Interview with Mrs. Widad Kawarz
• Embroidery on Dresses of Southern Palestine by Dr. Edward Kash
• A Bibliography on Costumes and Embroidery by Dr. Edward Kash
• Dr. Tawfik Kanaan (1882-1964): A pioneer Anthropologist from Palestine by Jaber Suleiman