Rawdat El-Zuhur (Garden of Flowers) is a coeducational elementary school for Palestinian children--both Christian and Muslim--in East Jerusalem. Founded in 1952, it now has 250 children in its kindergarten and elementary grades. Children in the school can be sponsored for $25 a month.
In this troubled part of the world, the children are all too familiar with road blocks and check points, with violence and despair. One four-year-old said: "We want peace, we are tired, we had enough of the army stopping us as we come to school. We are unable to go to picnics, and to visit the zoo, or go swimming in the sea."
Despite its surroundings, Rawdat provides the children with a quality education: English is taught in the first grade and French in the second; all the children learn computer skills; art, music, folk dancing, and sports play an important role in the school as do field trips and summer camps.
High unemployment means that many parents cannot pay even the minimal school fees. The support of sponsors enables children to attend the school who could not without the sponsors' help.
You can show your interest in this center or in sponsoring a child here, by sending us a note in the text box below.
RAWDAT EL-ZUHUR
