MEND is a NGO

Non-governmental organization

A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...

 which aspires to establish a non-violent Palestinansian civil society. The organisation was founded 1998 and is in the Westbank and Gaza Strip

Gaza Strip

thumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...

active.

Concept

With the concept of Active Nonviolence persuade the purpose to give the Palestinian civil society a perspective to solve their conflicts in the absence of violence. To launch this Nonviolence awareness MEND attempts an unconventional way of coming in contact with Palestinasian Society. So they work specifically with youngsters and women who are often underprivileged in the Palestinansian civil society.

Projects

• Workshops - MEND gives training to interested Palestinansien (MENDers) students in active Nonviolence. For this reason, MEND established a network of Active Nonviolence Centers over the Westbank and the Gaza Strip. The trainings are organized in regular intervals and last several weeks. After the training the MENDers have the opportunity to communicate their knowledge to their social environment.

• Sesame Street Project' - on the basis of the internationally renowned television series Sesame Street MEND created work materials that are specifically suited for children of preschool age. The aim was to overcome the lack of functional teaching materials for preschool children in the Palestinian community.

• Activist Talks - Because of the political situation, traveling between Palestinian territories is very difficult, time-consuming, and sometimes not at all possible. For this reason MEND activists are given the opportunity to exchange thoughts among themselves through video-conferencing.

Spreading

MEND established since 2002 a network of Active Nonviolence Centers over the entire West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Booth 2010 the following branches are active:

• East Jerusalem (headquarter)
• Hebron
• al-Eizariya
• Jenin
• Jericho
• Nablus
• Qalqiliya
• Ramallah
• Tul Karem
• Gaza