Tower of Hope

BEIT SAHOUR - Standing as an unconventional symbol of hope to Palestinian children, a three-story high climbing wall towers over the outskirts of this Christian community near Bethlehem.

It was built by hand by volunteers from Paidia, a non-governmental organization based in Pensacola, Florida that uses recreation as a tool to teach children leadership, environmental awareness and tolerance.

“We believe in education through recreation for the purpose of mobilization,” said Jason Pollack, who moved from the US with his wife Sarah to run the children’s programs here.

Established in 2006, Paidia’s visibility has grown with the climbing wall—the only one in the Palestinian territories—which is swarmed by neighborhood children. Visitors can climb on the weekends for just two shekels (about 60 cents).

Paidia’s focus is on Palestinian children in Bethlehem, Beit Sahour and another suburb, Beit Jala. The organization gathers children of Christian and Moslem backgrounds, both residents and refugees, and places them in a neutral setting where they learn to rely on each other through organized recreational activities that promote cooperation and trust.

Many Palestinian towns are devoid of parks, sports fields and playgrounds. Activities are almost nonexistent and bored youth abound. So Paidia’s programs meet a major need in Palestinian society.

“There is a real need here for positive recreational activities,” Pollack told Israel Today. “We give these children an opportunity to put what they have learned into practice to help them transform their communities.”

Their activities also counter the Hamas and Islamic Jihad summer camps where kids get militia-style training, Koran classes and lessons on political prisoners. This year, Hamas conducted some 300 summer camps for tens of thousands of children while Islamic Jihad held activities for about 10,000 children who learned how to handle guns and rocket launchers.

Children between the ages of 5 and 18 took part in Paidia’s summer camp learning different values. After-school programs, ropes courses, hiking and other activities are also offered throughout the year. The programs get the children out of their own world to span the animosity between the divided segments of Palestinian population.

Paidia doesn’t intentionally cross the Israeli-Palestinian divide—Pollack said plenty of other organizations do that and do it well. But Paidia hopes, he said, that “a stronger Palestinian society will improve the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.”

“We are beginning to hone in on what we can do well: cross-cultural training in a cross section of the community here,” Pollack said.

A non-denominational NGO, Paidia focuses on “developing human capital,” as Pollack put it. Its goal is to raise up local leaders in the community to take over so Paidia can move on to other nations.