“30 Minutes With My Child”: An Exceptional Campaign in Bethlehem

Bethlehem- The campaign entitled “30 minutes with my child” continued with the active participation of parents from towns and villages in Bethlehem Governorate. Launched by the local PRCS branch at the beginning of the Coronavirus crisis, the campaign, which is carried out with the help of many of the Society’s 350 volunteers in the Governorate, has turned out to be a great success story.

Judith al Sayej, the branch’s Administrative Director, spoke about how the campaign was born. “At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, we decided to set up a psychological support team to help mothers, and later on children, as part of the support provided by PRCS to local communities during these difficult times. We asked mothers to film their children as they carried out various activities such as drawing, telling stories and reciting poetry. The aim of the videos was to showcase children’s creativity and help them express their feelings and emotions”, Judith said.

Given the outstanding creative expressions portrayed in many videos, the branch decided to hold a contest to choose and award the top ten videos. According to Judith al Sayej, a jury will be selected at the end of the month of Ramadan. It will be tasked with selecting the winning videos. 

Salwa al Zeer, Community Action Coordinator at the branch, spoke about the role played by volunteers. “Volunteers play a major role in the implementation of this campaign. Local communities’ response has also been high, and the campaign spread very quickly, with people eager to showcase their children’s creativity. We were heartened by this response rate which proves that we can do great things even in the most difficult of times”.

Volunteer Ahmad Imteir, the branch’s Activities Officer, also spoke about this exceptional campaign: “The current extraordinary context led us to focus on psychological support as part of our social mission, and this is how this popular campaign came into being. Volunteers did a great job. They also helped children in grades one to three continue their education by resorting to distance learning solutions. This was done in a fun and accessible way, and children were offered gifts as an incentive to join this initiative. The creativity and originality of children as well as local communities’ widespread participation in these initiatives are the main reason behind their success”, he added.

End.