Bunat Il Ghad is an educational, cultural and recreation center for 12-16 year-old girls and boys and their parents. Founded in 1993, the Center was inspired by the need for a space for children who “graduated” from Al Shruq Wal Amal Center programs. The Center provides a safe and interactive environment for teenagers to explore and develop, informed by values that encourage a healthy sense of self and of their relationships and responsibilities to others and the environment in which they live. Adolescents discover their abilities to actively contribute to the cultural life of their peers, their local communities and society more broadly.

The Center is open from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm, five days a week and hosts a library, computer and science labs, and ongoing programs in computer, video and photography, fine arts, science, games and sports, and the Southern Gaza Youth Parliament, as well as a diversity of periodic activities like the CFTA annual cultural festival, the Juthoor (Roots) Cultural Heritage Festival and our annual summer camps.

Highlights in 2014

• Bunat Il Ghad adolescents developed an automatic watering system and are demonstrating its use as part of their efforts to advocate for the importance of responsible water consumption.

• Adolescents at Bunat Il Ghad are producing electric bells, electronic kits and talking garbage cans. These products were exhibited in a tech gallery to encourage other students and were also distributed to schools. 

Our approach

The Center’s approach to learning is rooted in the same principles of active learning, hands-on experimentation and learning adopted across all of CFTA’s educational work. All of the Center’s programs embrace a philosophy of full participation: girls and boys participate in planning, preparation, implementation and evaluation of all Center activities. Children are encouraged to test their ideas and experiences, participate in decision-making, and share responsibilities in the process of developing and managing activities. Recognizing the range of institutions influencing children and adolescents, the Center also works closely with their families, schools, and other community organizations.

CFTA’s educational and pedagogical services include a diversity of active, hands-on, child-centered learning activities for schoolchildren ranging from science and technology to reading, writing and multimedia production, to life skills development through games and sport, to learning through fine arts, folk art and drama. Our after-school remedial classes and summer camps are among our most popular and successful activities. We also provide teacher and leadership training and develop educational materials.

Because we use an integrated approach, our educational and pedagogical services are embedded in all of our work.