A Haven for Palestinian Children
Rawdat El-Zuhur
Alumni(ae) and Parents
At the end of each school year, 25-30 students graduate in an official ceremony from the sixth grade. They are scattered into different segregated large schools with completely strange surroundings after the sheltered atmosphere of Rawdat El-Zuhur. Through the Alumni Club, those graduates have the opportunity to meet once a month, to stay in touch with each other and with the school. The monthly meetings include a variety of programs ranging from field trips, general knowledge quizzes, workshops, debates on current issues and issues pertaining to their needs and rights as youth and to their responsibilities and commitment to the community. The graduates of 1993 were the founding members of the Alumni Club, and that first group acted as a core committee to contact other alumni to join and to set the preliminary aims and activities of the club. The club has been used as a forum to train the graduates to run meetings, vote on issues and have democratic elections.
The club continued to have regular programs until September 2013, when its activities had to be curtailed temporarily for funding reasons. However since the establishment of the club a large number of the graduates have already graduated from the university, and the school is in the process of planning a reunion for those young professionals to give them an opportunity to interact with each other and with the school.
In the meantime the Mothers’ group continues to be active in following up on issues pertaining to their children. They participate in the various functions and volunteer their services during field trips and fund raising functions and other activities.
ALUMNI TESTIMONIALS
Karim a doctor, has special memories of the school as he says: “ Maybe I spent more years at Rawdat El-Zuhur than any of its graduates as I started at two months old when I used to accompany my mom who taught Arabic at the school. Eventually I was old enough to enroll in the preschool for two years followed by the six years of elementary education. Psychologists say that the personality of a child develops between the ages of three to five, and I am so grateful that during that age I was a student at Rawdat El-Zuhur. Our teachers were dedicated and they emphasized the importance of moral values and civics, which stayed with us and has become part of us in our further studies and in our professional work.” Mazen, who continues to run errands for the school is the General Secretary at the French Institute, and Jamil is the maintenance man at the Belgium Consulate. Mazen says: “Rawdat El-Zuhur is about giving. It is a whole world for me of giving without ever thinking of taking. It gave us love, dignity, quality education, civics and appreciation of art, and music, and treated us all the same.” I could not think of a better school for my daughters enrolled now at Rawdat El-Zuhur.”
The club continued to have regular programs until September 2013, when its activities had to be curtailed temporarily for funding reasons. However since the establishment of the club a large number of the graduates have already graduated from the university, and the school is in the process of planning a reunion for those young professionals to give them an opportunity to interact with each other and with the school.
In the meantime the Mothers’ group continues to be active in following up on issues pertaining to their children. They participate in the various functions and volunteer their services during field trips and fund raising functions and other activities.
ALUMNI TESTIMONIALS
Karim a doctor, has special memories of the school as he says: “ Maybe I spent more years at Rawdat El-Zuhur than any of its graduates as I started at two months old when I used to accompany my mom who taught Arabic at the school. Eventually I was old enough to enroll in the preschool for two years followed by the six years of elementary education. Psychologists say that the personality of a child develops between the ages of three to five, and I am so grateful that during that age I was a student at Rawdat El-Zuhur. Our teachers were dedicated and they emphasized the importance of moral values and civics, which stayed with us and has become part of us in our further studies and in our professional work.” Mazen, who continues to run errands for the school is the General Secretary at the French Institute, and Jamil is the maintenance man at the Belgium Consulate. Mazen says: “Rawdat El-Zuhur is about giving. It is a whole world for me of giving without ever thinking of taking. It gave us love, dignity, quality education, civics and appreciation of art, and music, and treated us all the same.” I could not think of a better school for my daughters enrolled now at Rawdat El-Zuhur.”
