The Am’ari Play Centre in Ramallah

The Am’ari Play Centre provided pre-school education to up to 45 5-year old children who lived in Al Am’ari refugee camp between 1974 and 2019.

Just outside Ramallah, in the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, the refugee camp of Al Am’ari is home to some 10,520 registered refugees, people who lost their homes during the 1948/49 war which established the State of Israel, and/or where further displaced in 1967. No longer made up of tents, the camp is a collection of poorly built, high density buildings, with poor sanitation and infrastructure. The camp is run by UNRWA, the United Nations Refugees and Works Agency, which provided the room where the Centre was located, in a Girls’ elementary school.

EMES had been holding this project tenderly since it was started in 1974, and ran it in partnership with Friends United Meeting and local Quakers.

There are other Pre-schools in the West Bank. They charge between $150 and $500 a year for each child. The Am’ari Play Centre, which aimed to reach marginalised communities, charged $26 a year, and waived this cost for Special Hardship Cases.

The Play Centre provided pre-school education by providing Arabic and English alphabets learning, basic mathematics, basic concepts, social interactions with other children, with teachers and with the environment and in addition to have some time to play. In 2019 UNRWA decided that this provision was no longer needed, as there are other playgroups operating in the Camp.