Hi John,

Though we advocate non-violence and peace to our children, PACES is not really a "Sports for Peace" organiztion as you put it.

We create sanctuaries for the children to feel safe in, learn and be productive in. As I said in an earlier comment, if we were to introduce a variable that would add stress to the mix, then we would have failed the children.

Do I believe that peace is the ONLY solution? Absolutely. Do I think, given the current climate, that it is imminant? Not at all. And therefore PACES provides a shield from any potential extremism and violence through sports programs and activities to children who would otherwise be on the streets and exposed to such factors. So, we prepare our children for "peace", and when it comes, we will "play".

If and when a real peace deal is concluded, one that is fair to all parties and one that will stand the test of time, then PACES will be at the forefront in normalizing and humanizing the situation between all the children. But till then, and again as I articulated previously, PACES must stay away from taking any steps that will be regarded as political statements.

As far as local partners in Palestine, I have a team on the ground that manages the programs and over-sees the 120 coaches that we have created employment for. As for Jordan, we are about to launch a program outside Amman.

One of our main focus areas is the up-grading and improvement of our coaches' abilities, and we have held internal and external clinics for our coaches, and this might be something that we can develop together.

Regards,

Hani

Dear Jackie,

We are initially planning to start small by providing good quality wheelchairs and coaching to children who most likely are part of the existing communites that we have our programs in. Obviously the more chairs that we can buy and get into Palestine (which in itself is a real challange) the more children will benefit. We are also restricted by the fact that even when we get the chairs into the country we will not easily be able to move them from one centre to another, and therefore we need to leave them in areas where maximum benefit is derived. As for coaching some of our coaches do have experience in this field but as part of our philosophy of up-grading our coaches' abilities we will now add coaching for the handicapped to our internal and external clinics.

On a slightly similar note, we will soon start programs for children who need dialysis. These programs obviously create a different set of challenges but are also needed as these children would otherwise have no chance at doing sports at all.

For both the above I am planning to have non-handicapped and healthy children involved. In a society that regrads illness as a taboo I think that it will be imperative to start teaching ALL the children that the handicapped and those who are not well are just as part of the society as everyone else is.

As for the forthcoming seminar in November, I will try my best to attend, or will ask one of my colleagues to do so.

Thank you for you comments and interest in our work,

regards

Hani

Dear Suzanne and Paul,

When I started the first sets of programs in November of 2006 they were for 400 girls and boys. My intention and hope was to add 200-300 children every year and grow slowly in a methodical, clinical and scientific way that would have afforded me the luxury of an outcome study. However, the rapid success, both in the fund-raising and the expansion of the programs put such issues on the back-burner. That does not mean however that we do not monitor and supervise our programs in the right manner, but it does mean that the ways we monitor our outcome tend to be a bit rudimentary: through feed-back from the centres, the parents and the children themselves. And there is another way we guage our impact and success: in a country that lives under occupation and in the absence of a "real" democracy and therefore absence of serious freedom of expression regarding politics, corruption and the economy, the press tends to let itself loose in areas where there are no "untouchables". Articles and op-ed columns written about PACES are always positive, and the last one referred to us as " The Candle in the Darkness of the Night" in Palestine.

On the local community side we get our feed-back in a yet more crude form if I may: Ramallah has now become one of our biggest sources of funds and it tells me that Palestinian men and women who have their "ears to the ground" see the societal impact of our programs and are very eager to support them.

Our "success stories" are daily and "nameless": everytime we get a boy off the streets and into our programs, and everytime we get a girl out of her parents' house and into our activities we have added value to their day and life.

Having said all the above, I am very open to developing new and better ways and would very much appreciate any guideance and suggestions from you.

Warm regards

Hani

Jasper,

I wondered how long it would take before I was asked that question.

Since I founded PACES last year I have successfully kept it away from any involvement in politics. I have walked away from several "internal" situations in Palestine where politics would have played part in our progrms, and I dont mean on the Palestinian macro level, but on the very micro level within small communities. This is now one very strong "selling-point" for PACES and I want to keep as such.

On the Palestinian-Israeli issue politics and conflict become more complicated, and one has to tread even more carefully. Therefore, regardless of my personal thoughts, or those of fellow trustees and donors, PACES must not take a political stand that is not reflective of the feelings and aspiartions of its constituents. And those feeling are so acute among Palestinians now that taking PACES further above the political fray is not only wise, but very neccessary in my opinion.

Furthermore, our innovation is creating sanctuaries for the children to feel happy, safe and productive within, and to detract from that in any way would be wrong at this stage. The children in our programs need stability and a healthy envirnoment and to introduce an element that might result in an internal conflict for a child might take us many "paces" backward at this stage.

Warm regards

Hani

Hi Dana,

We are already have [connected] and we hope to meet during my next trip to Palestine. In the meantime my colleagues will meet with him to exchange ideas.

Hani

Hi Ziba,

I absolutley agree with you, and that is precisely why I "put my foot down" and refused to give in when parents offered to allow their daughters to join our basketball program as opposed to football. Football is not regarded as a socially acceptable game for girls to play..yet (PACES will do its past to change that). However, in some cases, and as I mentioned previously, even getting girls to play basketball was a challange.

I must add here that we chose basketball and football for a variety of reasons: We wanted team sports to allow the children to develop social skills and interact with one another in a healthy and productive envirnoment where the most skillful of the children and the least [skillfull] could be on the same team and in the same group. This was critical to my thinking in teaching children social skills, team-work and work-ethics. Furthermore, we are morally obligated to maximize the impact of each dollar that we raise and to that end having a team of two coaches per 25 children is more economically effective than trying to nurture swimming or tennis talents.

Warm regards

Hani

Hi Ziba,

As I wrote in my entry we engaged in "house to house begging" in order to persuade the parents to allow their daughters to join our programs. It was easier to get parents to agree to basketball than to football (part of the social taboo against girls playing the game) and in some instances we had to agree to hold the practice sessions for the girls indoor, which isnt always easy to do. Needless to say, the girls adorn the head-scarves and wear long-sleeved shirts and always cover their legs, but at least they attend religiously (no pun intended). What helped was our reputation for seriousness and more so the fact that most house visits were done by one of our full-time colleagues who is also the captain of the Palestine Woman's National football team. Her charisma and persistance paid off. Of note here is that we only encountered this problem in Jenin, Tulkarem and Hebron.

Small world: the major sponsors of your former club in Ramallah are also one of my main partners in PACES and have just built an indoor basketball arena at the club. Smaller world still: the other entry from Palestine was one of several potential locations we had ear-marked three weeks ago as a potential venue for our programs for next year. We will now wait till this competition is over before making contact lest we create any impression of collusion

As for the Kigali initiative, I agree that we could learn from their experiences. However, as I mentioned in my entry we have forged several relationships with NGOs who have similar experiences with refugees and we are tapping on that for guidance and help.

I hope that you will soon visit Palestine again. It would be a pleasure to show you our programs.

Warm regards,

Hani

Hi Steve,

Thank you for your kind words, and constructive comments. However, I must say that our emphasis on gender equity was well-received within the community in the UK and elsewhere. The only caveat being in very conservative areas in Palestine where we had to engage in "house to house begging". My colleagues went house to house in Hebron pleading with parents to allow their daughters to partake in our programs. It was a tough task but in the end we got our way.

As for the teams this coming summer we hope to take two teams to the mini basketball tournament in Itlay and two more teams to the UK for a football tour.

warm regards

Hani