42 Community organization and more than 3,000 children and youth benefit from Sharek's motivational partnership grants

Ramallah – Sharek Youth Forum has announced the start of its preparation for the third stage of its program Partners aimed at building the capacity of youth institutions and their young personnel. Sharek has completed two stages of this project, which was launched in the second half of 2005.

The program coordinator Hazem Abu Hilal stated that over 120 community institutions working in the youth and children sector have benefited from training activities on management of civil society organizations, financial management, fundraising, and working with donors, in addition to classroom and practical training on management, proposal writing, reporting and developing work plans for donors

He added, "During the first two stages, 42 institutions benefited from motivational partnership grants provide by Sharek Forum through Partners program, which is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation. The value of these grants ranged between USD 500 and USD 4000. The total beneficiaries are estimated at 3000 children and young persons in urban and rural areas and refugee camps."

Abu Hilal also noted that the partner organizations have implemented various projects and activities in all Palestinian districts. Examples of such projects are two child parliaments in Hebron, a child club in Al-Ein refugee camp, Nablus, projects in support of youth and children with special needs in Jenin and Hebron, a number of summer camps in Bethlehem, Jenin, Qalqilya, Tulkarem and Hebron districts, in addition to projects aimed at improving school achievement and linguistic abilities of children, projects on mental health and others on reproductive health in Ramallah and Gaza districts, projects for recycling of waste in Gaza Strip, projects to support graduates and university students, and a project on electronic communication implemented in partnership between a number of Palestinian civil society organizations in Palestine and abroad under the supervision of Arab Youth center "Baladna" in Haifa with Sharek Youth Forum and Social Communication Center n Lebanon.

 Abu Hilal emphasized, "The program was successful in reinforcing partnership and joint work between the different civil society organizations, which is evident in the strong relations between these organizations following the implementation of the program."