It is the students that Ahdaf supports who make the organisation what it is. We are very proud of their achievements, both in their studies and in their communities. We’ve asked them to write a little about what working with Ahdaf means to them.

Ahmad successfully applied to Ahdaf four years ago. He is studying at Bir Zeit University.

“When I first started, my project was to help Tawjihi students who needed extra assistance with maths, which is what I am studying. I arranged weekly meetings and discussed the problems that the students faced we looked to solve them as a group. After a while I started searching the internet for past years exam questions to provide the students with mock exams similar to the Tawjihi. This gave them more confidence and they were able to use the knowledge that they had learned to solve more complex maths questions.

“Then I developed my project further and I started a website which is all about maths, so this site is able to help many more students as they don’t have to be able to attend my classes. The website offers the students resources like lectures, notes, books and questions. Now I have developed my website much further I am writing about many things, including Palestine, its people, its history and its culture.

“Volunteering with Ahdaf has given me a sense of responsibility towards my community and I am proud of that. I have also improved my communication and leadership skills through running classes for students. And Ahdaf isn’t just an organisation that is supporting me at university – I consider Ahdaf as my “family”. My hope is that Ahdaf grows and becomes larger and larger and reaches to all the cities, camps and villages of Palestine, enabling it to share its belief in encouraging volunteering and running projects to benefit and strengthen our society.”

Taghreed is a fourth year student at Bethlehem University studying Arabic Language.

“My volunteer project is to help people with special educational needs. I run my project at the Palestinian Society of Friends of the Disabled and established a programme that provides educational sessions to people who the society supports. I have an agreement with them: they give their commitment to study and I give my commitment to help and support them. And, of course, we all give our time. This commitment creates mutual respect between us. And the regular sessions have been really successful, so I am really proud of what we’ve achieved together.

“As for Ahdaf, I see it as a great institution. It is very effective in encouraging and building students as active participants in our community. By giving us the opportunity to identify and integrate with our society, Ahdaf has created in us the idea to set goals and achieve positive things in our community. Ahdaf’s own goal is giving university students the opportunity to complete their university education while helping us with integration into Palestinian society. I think we are all achieving great things, students like me and Ahdaf.”

Mohammad lives near Hebron and is studying agriculture at Hebron University.

“My name is Mohammad and I am from a village called Beit Ka’hel. I was very active in voluntary work since I was young. Someone said to me, “voluntary work will not help you to continue your studies”, but thanks to Ahdaf I have proved him wrong.

“I have never faced any difficulty in communicating with Ahdaf. Their aim is to support me to be active in my community and my society through voluntary work. They also help me for my future by paying my university fees – this was such a burden for me and my family.

“Before Ahdaf helped me, I had to work to help to pay my university fees and from this the idea for my project came. My project was to provide university books for the students who can’t afford to buy them. I created an exchange system for students at the start of term and they return the books at the end. My project has really developed and now a lot of students have become engaged with it. A lot of students cannot afford to buy these books so this has helped them with something really essential – the books they need.

“I haven’t stopped there though and I have started another voluntary project. I am planting trees in the area of my village, and I have got other people from the village to participate with me. Each tree is named for a family, so each home owns the tree and has to look after it. Through the tree project we have created a network of youth volunteers and we are really active in our community. This is because of Ahdaf.

“Ahdaf has provided a foundation that has supported me and encouraged me for the past two years. This has also strengthened my commitment to my society and my community. Therefore, I want to thank Ahdaf and I hope that a lot of people outside Palestine know about us, the students that it supports. I dream to travel so I can talk about the youth of Palestine and how we face such a hard situation. And we resist the situation because we have to and because of support from organisations like Ahdaf.”

Jihad lives near Bethlehem and is studying at Bethlehem University.

“My name is Jihad and my community project is volunteering in society for people with a disability. The goal of my volunteering in our society is to assist in the integration of people with special needs in the community. Part of this has been to support and encourage disabled people to lobby relevant government institutions concerning their problems and to ask for better provision in the community for people with disabilities.