Camden New Journal - by CHARLOTTE CHAMBERS Published: 11 October 2007
Teachers prepare for Middle East fact-finding trip
SECONDARY school teachers are going on a week-long tour of Jerusalem to learn more about the problems that face the area.
A total of 11 teachers from schools in Camden will embark on the trip,
beginning next Wednesday, which will see them visit each school in Abu Dis, before taking on a two-day attachment at one.
Organiser Nandita Dowson, who chairs the Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association, said: “The problems for people in Abu Dis are very severe. “They are living under military occupation and an eight-foot Israeli separation wall. “I’m happy the teachers on both sides will be meeting people who have very different lives.”
Abu Dis, a town in Israeli-occupied Palestine which is separated from Jerusalem by an Israeli-patrolled barrier – and is twinned with Camden Town – has come under the spotlight since Ms Dowson’s human rights charity was set up three years ago.
Teachers from La Sainte Union, Parliament Hill, Hampstead, Maria Fidelis, William Ellis, Acland Burghley, Camden School for Girls and Primrose Hill primary school will be going on the trip, which is costing the British Council about £1,500 per teacher.
Ms Dowson also revealed that Abu Dis boys’ school is due to be twinned with Hampstead School, West Hampstead, by the end of the autumn term.
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