The Leichhardt Friends of Hebron group in Sydney’s inner west has been awarded a small grant. The grant is designed to enable grassroots community participation in events during Refugee Week and encourage Australians to think about the reasons refugees flee their homelands.
Such grants are made possible through the support of the NSW Community Relations Commission.
The grant will help Leichhardt Friends of Hebron with its annual “Festival of Friendship”, which raises funds for a preschool in the South Hebron Hills of occupied Palestine.
The grant supports the event’s photographic exhibition, which tells the devastating story of the longstanding Palestinian refugee crisis.
Leichhardt Friends of Hebron’s Miriam Pellicano said: “We are delighted we have been awarded this grant and it will make a huge impact to this year’s photographic exhibition — 'Palestine to Remember — which shows the plight of Palestinian refugees from 1948 to the present day."
Samah Sabawi, a keynote speaker at the festival, whose family were made refugees in the aftermath of the 1967 war, said: “The community is appreciative of this acknowledgement to the current Palestinian refugee situation which affects 4.8 million people.”
Everyone is welcome to the multi-cultural Festival of Friendship, which will take place on June 18 from noon to 8.00pm at the Leichhardt Town Hall. It’s an opportunity to sample the delicious Arabic food that will be served throughout the day.
Noon: Doors open to preview the exhibition, browse the market stalls, enjoy good food, great coffee and maybe a glass of wine.
12:45pm: Trade Union choir
1pm: Opening ceremonies for the exhibition and festival – ALL WELCOME
2:30pm: Come for coffee and a treat before watching our feature film Return to Gaza. This documentary follows the journey of Palestinian refugee, Fetah Sabawi, now an Australian citizen from Melbourne, who took his wife and child back to Gaza with him in 2006 where they visited his family and started a music school for young Palestinian refugees.
4pm: A forum to discuss the very topical issue of boycott, divestment and sanctions and its relevance to the Palestinian refugee diaspora.
6-8pm: The event will end with a celebration of music and dance from Middle Eastern, South American, Turkish and African groups. After the event, the exhibition photos will be donated to the local library to help raise awareness of the Palestinian refugee situation.
Leichhardt Friends of Hebron is a community group working to support vulnerable communities in the Hebron region of the Occupied Palestinian Territories and raise awareness of the issues of human rights and international humanitarian law.
The Friends of Hebron, working with other community groups, local and international, have already built one kindergarten near Hebron, and together plan to raise more money for a second kindergarten in 2011.
This will provide opportunities for early childhood education for even more children from the most vulnerable communities in the Hebron region.
[For more details call Miriam on 0414 589 643 or visit http://hebronleichhardt.wordpress.com/ ]