Inbal from Askar featured in Hopeful Voices

TYO is thrilled to be part of a great new initiative: Hopeful Voices, a brand new teaching aide featuring stories about 10 children from around the world, from Haiti to India to the US to right here in Nablus! The publication is a project of My Class Cares, an American 501c3 tax-exempt organization that works "to inspire youth to care deeply for the well-being of people throughout the world". The stories have been compiled as a teaching guide: each one provides a window into the people, culture, challenges and opportunities of one country. My Class Cares staff have done a wonderful job of enriching each story with background information on the country, as well as reflection questions and research prompts. Through TYO’s involvement in the project, Inbal, a 10-year-old girl from Askar camp in Nablus, was chosen to share her Hopeful Voice with the world! Download the publication (totally free, just requires an email address), and reach her story! In the meantime, here are some highlights from Inbal's story:

My name is lnbal. I am in fourth grade. I live in Askar refugee camp. We live in a very narrow alley. My grandparents live in the house next to us. In you go up on the steps on one side is my uncle’s house and on the other another uncle. If you go up more steps there is my grandfather’s room and if you go up on the top there are two sheep. On the other side is mint, sage, water tanks and the satellite dish.

Inside our house, there is a room for visitors. There are shelves and glasses and books. Then we enter our bedroom and there is a closet. There are four beds in this room for me, Nibal, Manar, and my mother. From this room there is a balcony and my mom uses it to dry the clothes. On the other side there is a kitchen and a bathroom. We have a very small kitchen and we cannot eat in it. We eat in the bedroom. We have a very small bathroom.  There is a boiler for heating the water, sink and a toilet.

My favorite day was when I enrolled in TYO.  I feel that everyone loves me here and that I respect everyone and they respect me back... I like it when my teachers ask us to share something about our lives in the classroom. I learned how to use the computer and how to draw. I learned that stealing something from others is not appropriate.  The person who loses something will feel sad, frustrated and angry. TYO is encouraging me to be stronger.

We hope you will enjoy these Hopeful Voices from around the world, and support the wonderful work of My Classroom Cares in the US and around the world. If you have children, or work with children, share the publication with them. We’d be happy to pass your messages on to Inbal!