UNDERSTANDING PALESTINE IS AN EDUCATIONAL PROJECT ORGANIZED BY YOUTH UNRAVLES CRISIS.

All the donations we raise will be administered by Marlene Strasser, Project Manager and chief financial officer before it is contributed to the selected participants. WE PROMISE THAT EACH DONATED EURO GOES STRAIGT INTO OUR SCHOLARSHIP FUNDS

Youth Unravels Crisis

Background:

Through press and media we are constantly confronted with crisis and political catastropheas around the world. At the same time, many younger people become more and more reluctant towards participating in political discussions, and the overflow of information leads to deterrence instead of more curiosity.
We wanted to initiate a project encouraging students to understand how and why a certain conflict emerged, as we believe this to be an essential step towards working for future solutions.

Strategy:

YOUTH UNRAVELS CRISIS acts as an educational project, bringing groups of students into areas of political conflict. During the 14-day long journeys, the students will be in touch with young people from every area of our daily life: start-up entrepreneurs, artists and musicians, university students or political activists from all spectrums.
Through an application process, students from different fields of study will be selected to create a diverse body. This network of students will allow them to increase efficiency in their future projects. In addition, the contact to locals will offer them the opportunity to continue working together on projects on site.

Impact:

With YOUTH UNRAVELS CRISIS we try to encourage our generation to feel responsible for contributing to our global society. We allow students to achieve a deep understanding and personal connection to communities living in areas of crisis. Hopefully this will eventually influence their own decision-making and behaviour.
Promoting and financially supporting young people to act as multipliers for educated opinion forming and decision making in our society, will make the world surely a more peaceful world.

Business plan

YOUTH UNRAVELS CRISIS works through existing human rights organization committed to conflict solving in specific communities. This increases our credibility, provides the access to long built-up contacts in crucial positions and increases investment

Partners

Palestine Committee Munich:

The Palestine Committee is an association located in Munich, promoting awareness on the Israeli-/Palestine Conflict. Located and founded in Germany, the Committee is working towards a more open and critical view on the conflict, as well as offering platforms to openly discuss with local political activists, trying to find ways of changing the situation on site. As Germany has a special position and a specific background regarding the Israeli-/Palestine conflict, the Committee's political approach has always been aware and in consideration of all sides. Yet, because of Germany's particular responsibility, the return to a culture of constructive criticism towards extremism is crucial.

Breaking the Silence

Breaking the Silence is an organization of veteran combatants who have served in the Israeli military since the start of the Second Intifada and have taken it upon themselves to expose the Israeli public to the reality of everyday life in the Occupied Territories. We endeavor to stimulate public debate about the price paid for a reality in which young soldiers face a civilian population on a daily basis, and are engaged in the control of that population’s everyday life. The organisation supports the project "Understanding Palestine", as they find it especially crucial to educate internationals about the daily reality of living in this area of conflict.

One Voice

OneVoice is an international grassroots movement that amplifies the voice of mainstream Israelis and Palestinians, empowering them to propel their elected representatives toward the two-state solution. The Movement works to forge consensus for conflict resolution and build a human infrastructure capable of mobilizing the people toward a negotiated, comprehensive, and permanent agreement between Israel and Palestine that ends the occupation, ensures security and peace for both sides, and solves all final-status issues in accordance with international law and previous bilateral agreements. The 1967 borders form the basis for the establishment of an independent, viable Palestinian state, with permanent borders and any modifications to be agreed upon by both parties. The Movement recognizes that violence by either side will never be a means to end the conflict.

About the organizers:

Fuad Hamdan - Project adviser

Fuad Hamdan has founded the Palestine Committee in 1982 and is considered as Munich's political specialist on the Israeli-/Palestine Conflict. He grew up in Qalandia refugee camp in Ramallah and came to Germany to study when he turned 18 years. From then on, he started working to educate and inform Germans about the difficult political situation on site. For more than 25 years, Mr. Hamdan has organized educational trips to his home country where he takes his groups to families, political activists and affected cities. "It is especially important for people to see themselves and feel how the conflict affects every aspect of life", he says. Organizing an educational trip to Palestine for students has been on his mind for a long time and he hopes that the network they will build up with each other, but also with the locals, might help them to further work for a better solution of this conflict.

Marlene Strasser - Project Manager

Marlene Strasser has participated in several educational and social projects in the Middle East. The reasons and backgrounds of how crisis evolove has always been especially interesting for her, because this undestanding is essential for foreigners when trying to improve such situations. When Marlene returned to Munich, her home city, she wanted to also rise the political awareness on such foreign conflicts in Germany. She joined the Palestine Committee as well as the political party "Free Voters" where she is responsible for social media, education and foreign politics. In the first project "Understanding Palestine", organized by her newly founded organization Youth Unravels Crisis she sees a great chance for students to get in touch with locals from all areas of life and to thoroughly graps all aspects of the conflict. "The first step of solving a problem has to be understanding all details and angles of it." Working in the tourism sector for the last three years, she believs that managing this educational journey is the perfect combination of her professional and political strengths.

Rosario Freire - Project coordinator and admission officer

Rosario Freire was born in Chile and came to Germany with an already extremly international background. Having finished her college in Great Britain, she travelled to various Latinamerican countries, where she has gathered experiences by facilitating social entrepreneurship projects and co-organising educational projects on literacy and community building. Doing a bachelor in social sciences in the Jacobs University in Bremen, she became more and more intrigued about Germany's taboos regarding this conflict. The war in Gaza 2014 finally convinced her to become active and participate in a project, which does not aim to dictate a certain opinion, but where students have the chance to understand and judge themselves. Responisble for admissions, Rosario wants to focus on diversity and internationality within the group. "We need people that are active, critical and culturally sensitive. The final target is to assemble students who, also in future, aim to work together with locals on ways of solving problems on site!"