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Using the skills they have learned together with their imagination they have then gone on to create stories, images, puppet shows and three dimensional forms in response to their lives, communities and regional history. The body of work that they have created has been collected together into a book that explains drawing and design concepts in a simple way using their art work as examples. The book is in English and Arabic and includes technical footnotes to explain processes.

This is a bi-lingual 150 pages book of photos, artwork and testimonies by Palestinian refugee children, in color and hardcover. 30 children worked for more than a year to finish this work that was printed March 2001. The topics that the children decided to show in this book include:
- Children's lives in refugee camps in Lebanon characterized by insufficient health care, poor sanitation, inappropriate education, school drop-out, child labor, lack of job, opportunities and emigration.

- Children's hopes, what make them happy: “picnics, good food, fitness, education, friendship, and love”, & what makes them sad: “air-raids, fear, and worry”.

- The memories of elder people about their live in Palestine, and of their uprooting, children are connected to their past and the history of their people: “life had to go on far the sake of Palestine”: “I wish I were a bird to fly to my country”.

- Children's views of their rights: “my right to have rights and to defend them”; “my right to study and not to work”; “the right to have good food and shelters”; “poor children have the right to play and to have safe play-grounds”; “the right to medical treatment”; “the right to free expression”; “the right to have a homeland”; and “the right to liberate my country and return home”.

- Moments of hope reflected in stories of the time when children saw the land of Palestine after the liberation of South Lebanon in May 2000, and meeting children from Palestine at the border. These children prove that the fourth generation of Palestinian children in exile are connected to their past, and concerned about their present and future. It is to note that the possibility of translating the work to Spanish, Dutch, French, Japanese and Finnish is being considered.

This is a product of the project:
Palestinian Refugee children in Lebanon record their lives & express their hopes.

The resource is mainly directed at children aged 3-7 but offers ideas for younger and older children. The activities are practical and most require that you have some percussion instruments.
There are two important premises behind this resource – the first is that you do not need to be a musician to give children meaningful and fun musical experiences. We all have the capacity for creativity and inspiring creativity.

The second premise is that children make music with or without adults. Creativity is as vital a skill as maths or literacy. Making music demands the coordination of different bits of our brain – the imaginative, the emotional, the logical and the physical. Music is also inherently social and children can learn the vital skills of listening, taking turns, leading and working as a team – all essential life skills.

As you watch the film cast away your preconceptions about what music is and isn’t and listen to the music the children create. Then you will discover the wonderful world of children’s music – full of invention, surprise and beauty.

Produced By:
Arab Resource Center for Popular Arts /AL-JANA
A.M.Qattan Foundation – Qattan Center For Educational Research & Development