Hand Puppets Bring Joy to Young Palestinian Children in Refugee Camps throughout Lebanon10/12/2007

The donation of delightful hand knitted puppets from local residents of Suffolk UK, recently forwarded to Welfare Association Lebanon through Welfare Association Sister Organization in the United Kingdom, has proved a great success with Palestinian girls and boys attending local kindergartens inside refugee camps throughout Lebanon.

The puppets are on permanent display in four camp-based kindergartens to make them accessible to all children.  The colorful boxes, each with two rows of five puppets, were created using appropriate paper based technology (APT) by a small team of Palestinians with disability, resident in al Buss Camp, Tyre south Lebanon.

WA Lebanon has presented the first box of ten puppets to Palestinian refugee children at Al Najdeh Association kindergarten in al Buss Camp, Tyre south Lebanon.   Here 20 boys and girls, 4-5 years of age, gazed with wide smiles and excitement as the colorful puppet box was brought into the classroom.  When invited to choose a puppet, all children rushed in order to be the first to choose a puppet.

The following comments from the children clearly illustrate the joy when receiving the hand puppets:

"...they are beautiful colors and I want to play with them all the time"

"...I love them and want to take one home"

"...I think these puppets are special because we can talk to each other through them"

The rest of the puppets were given to the following kindergartens: Ghassan Kanafani, al Beddawi Tripoli, INAASH, Al Jaleel Baalbeck, Beit Atfal al-Summoud, and Shatila Beirut.