Resilient and safe libraries for learning

Focus: Psychosocial support and capacity building
Who: 1000+ direct participants, 1,750+ indirect
Where: Gaza Strip and West Bank, Palestine
When: October 2024 — ongoing
Partner: Tamer Institute for Community Education

Community libraries are lifelines for learning and cultural connection, and few places is this as evident as in Palestine. Working with Tamer Institute for Community Education, we support a network of community libraries across Palestine that serve as more than repositories of books: They are safe spaces where children play, learn and process trauma, youth develop life skills, and communities maintain their cultural identity under siege.

Nearly all schools buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or turned into emergency shelters for forcefully displaced people. On the West Bank communities face daily military raids, road closures and violent settler attacks, severely affecting the educational infrastructure. There is a high need for safe spaces where learning can continue and children can find support.

With this project, we transform 30 community libraries across Palestine into resilient cultural hubs where identity, creativity and learning intersect. Through specialized training for librarians, psychosocial support activities and community programming, these community libraries become spaces where Palestinian children can safely explore their cultural identity, process their experiences and imagine their futures.

What we do together

Working with Tamer Institute’s extensive network of community educators and librarians, we support comprehensive capacity-building that transforms local libraries into dynamic cultural centers. Librarians receive specialized training in psychosocial support through storytelling, expressive arts, and trauma-informed programming designed specifically for children living under occupation and genocide.

The project includes capacity building paths for librarians led by Palestinian experts, summer camps that bring library workers together for knowledge exchange, and advocacy training that empowers Library Friends’ Committees to secure resources from local authorities. Youth teams develop critical life skills through capacity-building workshops and create their own cultural productions including podcasts, performances and publications.

Through frequent activities in each library, children participate in reading sessions, creative workshops, and expressive arts programs that help them process their experiences while connecting with Palestinian literature and culture. Parent-child activities strengthen family bonds while monthly community events ensure libraries remain vibrant centers of neighborhood life.