Alrowwad Theatre – Palestine
Our first funding project is the Alrowwad Theatre in Bethlehem, Palestine. Martyn was fortunate enough to visit the Theatre last year during a visit to Palestine and the refugee camps behind the wall. During what was an emotional visit on both sides of the wall for Martyn, the Theatre was the spark that led to his vision of forming Let Yourself Trust. He chose to honour that inspiration by partnering with his audience and supporting the Theatre and it’s beautiful work as the inaugural project for the Trust. Fundraising for the Theatre has occurred all over the US, Canada and parts of the UK since early 2014, and will finish in June when he returns to present a cheque to the Theatre, a year after his first visit.
Since 1998, Alrowwad has been driven by volunteerism. All of their activities were and are still free. The wonderful support of friends and partners who have teamed up with Alrowwad have helped fund their efforts to date via sporadic donations, however Alrowwad does not have any fixed funding commitment from any private donor or organisation, and fundraising is a continuous work.
Where Your Money Is Going
Funds collected on behalf of Let Yourself Trust for the Theatre during our funding time period will go towards the following:
Musical instruments for their musical program
Digital cameras for their photography and video programs
Scientific equipment (microscopes, experiment kits, scientific videos, etc) for their Science Education Centre
Books, Audio books, videos and DVDs on art for their Theatre, plays, children’s films, and library
Paints, brushes, and art supplies for their Arts programs
A blog page will be coming in the next few weeks prior to Martyn’s return to Palestine, so as to update you regularly with photos of the supplies and equipment you’re helping to purchase, as well as videos and photos during Martyn’s trip, so you can see exactly what you’re helping to support.. please check back soon!
The Alrowwad Cultural and Theatre Society in the Aida Refugee Camp – Palestine
Alrowwad Cultural and Theatre Society (ACTS), initiator of the “Beautiful Resistance”, is a cultural and theatre training centre offered to the children and youth of Palestine as a beautiful way of self-expression and an alternative to the violence that is forced on them by occupation, oppression and dictatorships.
ACTS is an independent, dynamic, community-based centre which strives to empower children, youth and women by targeting behavior, knowledge, concepts and practices through beautiful and non-violent means.
ACTS mission is to save lives, inspire hope in such times of despair, empowering the community and promoting human values and respect of human rights through culture, arts and education as ways of beautiful and non-violent means of self-expression and resistance against the ugliness of occupation and its violence and as means to build the peace within the individual to be able to build it in the world.
ACTS targets the national community while focusing on children, youth and women in the local community of Aida Camp, Bethlehem district and on national level. ACTS targets as well the international community at large to break the stereotypes and show another image of Palestinian people and culture. The centre should have the full capability to mobilize human, technical and financial resources to achieve a dynamic and effective change within the targeted community.
ACTS was established in 1998 and registered as a charitable Not-For-Profit organization on August 2003, under law Number 1 of Charitable Societies and Non-governmental Associations, 2000, by the Ministry of Interior of the Palestinian National Authority under the License Number BL-360-CU, and License no. 239/B/100/2009 from the Ministry of Culture.
Alrowwad website: http://www.alrowwad.org