Anon

In 1971 I went to the American University of Beirut, uh, to study, uh, medicine… I was completely taken with the, uh, activities as a student, I was a very active, very energetic… um activist in Lebanon. You cannot not be at that time – it was 1971 to 1975 and that time was wars… 1973 wars…civil wars, attacks from Israel on Lebanon and we could hear the explosions, the bombardment- everything.

Um, I also… chose… to volunteer. I worked with… in the American University, they had a lot of activities for students that they can join and I joined the welfare… um support for refugees. These are students that um… volunteered to go and umm… teach in… refugee camps and there are…about at that time there were about 6-8 Palestinian refugee camps and I taught there with the uh… with the UNRWA. UNRWA is… just let me mention that; its the United Nation Relief Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, and they used to… uh… uh…. have schools in every refugee camp… uh but the schools were never enough for the number of students that they had, the number of children to teach. So they used to have at least twice a day, so I used to go in the evening and teach biology and believe you me, I had 50 kids. I was a kid myself 17 years old and that was my first year in university. And uh… and I was… uh at that time taught biology, and you drop… you drop a… a… a needle and you would hear it – 50 of them. I’ve never seen anything like it, and they were all mixed ages, mixed everything and they just sat there and listened and then asked questions…. they were very keen on education, very keen.

Notes:

United Nation Relief Works Agency (UNRWA)

ESTABLISHMENT
Following the 1948 War, UNRWA was established by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 302 (IV) of 8 December 1949 to carry out direct relief and works programmes for Palestine refugees. The Agency began operations on 1 May 1950.

In the absence of a solution to the Palestine refugee problem, the General Assembly has repeatedly renewed UNRWA’s mandate, most recently extending it until 30 June 2026.

PALESTINE REFUGEES
UNRWA is unique in terms of its long-standing commitment to one group of refugees. It has contributed to the welfare and human development of four generations of Palestine refugees, defined as “persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 War.” The descendants of Palestine refugee males, including legally adopted children, are also eligible for registration.

UNRWA services are available to all those living in its areas of operations who meet this definition, who are registered with the Agency and who need assistance. When the Agency began operations in 1950, it was responding to the needs of about 750,000 Palestine refugees. Today, some 5.9 million Palestine refugees are eligible for UNRWA services.

To find out more about UNRWA, see https://www.unrwa.org