United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
Address:
UNESCO
PO Box 2154
Ramallah, Palestine
Tel: 972-2- 295 9740
Fax: 972-2- 295 9741
E-mail:
unesco@palnet.com
Brief:
Youth-related activities carried out by the UNESCO Office in Ramallah:
1. UNESCO established the Multipurpose Community Resource Centers (MCRC) in the cities of Nablus and Gaza. They both share a similar mandate and deal with relevant socio-economic and cultural issues for youth.
2. The MCRC at Nablus was established some five years ago, and it has been designed to address the needs of youth, women, and children by providing a number of educational and job training services. It has also provided traditional handicrafts and tourist guide short training courses, home and office appliances, maintenance, electricity and plumbing courses. A series of voluntary activities have been organized for the benefit of the community in areas such as education support for elementary stage pupils, and cultural heritage preservation.
3. The MCRC at Gaza offers services such as job information, guidance and training courses, sports and cultural facilities. The overall objectives of the Center are to improve the quality of life of youth (16 to 22 years old); to promote their sound development and their cultural sense; to increase their awareness; to develop their life skills, and to prepare them for better social and productive civic life by enhancing their participation in the advancement of their families and communities.
Among the activities that UNESCO carries out in cooperation with non- governmental youth organization is the INFOYOUTH Center. The INFOYOUTH Network, was initiated in 1991 by UNESCO in order to meet two main challenges: (a) The necessity to counteract the splintering of various and scattered information sources and networks on youth; (b) the urgent need to implement appropriate and coherent youth policies. The INFOYOUTH Network supports the International Palestinian Youth League in Hebron, with the objectives of, inter alia, supporting the creation of dialogue inside the Palestinian society on peace, values, and conflict resolutions; support the use of information technologies as a means for bridging the distance between young people and as a tool for informal education; raising the youth’s awareness about their potential energy and their capacity to change negative attitudes in the society.
