Promotion of Bedouin traditional culture
| Starting | 2012 |
| Objective | Enhance the traditional Bedouin culture, an ancient culture that is likely to be overwhelmed and forgotten, crushed by the logic of the conflict. |
| Project Status | Completed |
| Partner |  – Tamer Institute for Community Education di Ramallah – Palestinian National Theatre |
| Funded by |  – European Union – Network of Municipalities of South Milan and the Province of Cremona |
Bedouin camps located east of Jerusalem vary in size and population and are organized into about forty camps located in the area surrounding the Maale Adumim settlement. The boundaries of the area are Bethlehem south, Abu Dis and Al Azaryia west, Anata north and Jericho in the east and are organized around the axis Street Map 1, which connects Jerusalem to the Dead Sea and Jordan. Although Jahalin ethnicity is predominant, there are many clans belonging to Ka’abin and Abu Dahoek groups. The camps are located near the desert hills overlooking the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea basin, the deepest depression of the planet. Some Jahalin are allocated to the east, in the Jericho area and the hinterland of the Jordan River. Jahalin camps are located on residual spaces, narrow border areas between the wall, the settlements, the military infrastructure and the impetuous urban development that characterizes the territory.
The project has seen the creation of a participatory research on Bedouin oral tradition. With the expert guidance of an ethnographer storyteller “akawatia”, the communities have made an important journey to rediscover their legends and traditional stories.
The project has seen the direct involvement of the Wadi Abu Hindi and Alhan Al Ahmar communities, and in particular children and girls attending primary schools built by Vento di Terra, the school of tires and the bamboo school.
Under the direction of Palestinians trainers, and Italian visual artists and photographers, Ivan Tresoldi and Giuliano Camarda in particular, children were able to live an experience of storytelling, shooting and editing of videos and photos, putting their original culture as protagonist.
About 200 children took part in creative activities in the field of video and photo. About 200 children have participated in the workshops of illustration, storytelling and creative writing. Students of Abu Hindi, with the story “Towards the World Championship 2014”, created within a storytelling laboratory, got the extraordinary mention for the Boys section by the jury of the Andersen Award in 2012, which takes place annually in Sestri Levante (GE). In early July 2012, a plaque signed by President Giorgio Napolitano has been handed to the children of the Bamboo School by Valentina Ghio, the Councillor of the City of Sestri Levante.
