Volunteer With Palestinian Refugees in 2024/2025

Volunteer with Palestinian Refugees in the West Bank in 2024/2025: This volunteer program is for undergraduate and graduate students, professionals, employees of human rights organizations, retirees and anyone interested in volunteering with Palestinian refugees in the West Bank – there are a plethora of ways to do this. First and foremost is working with children in Palestinian refugee camps. Volunteers will have the chance to stay with a Palestinian host family, study colloquial Arabic, live the Palestinian daily life and experience the Palestinian culture and politics

The Palestinian schools in these camps are underdeveloped and lack many of the basic resources to fulfil their students’ educational needs. Further, volunteers will have the opportunity to work with Palestinian human rights organizations, community centers, international NGOs, and charity organizations to advocate for the rights of refugees. Participants can also create educational workshops for Palestinian children, youth, women and the local community in general. These workshops are crucial because they teach new skills, as well as foster cultural exchange.

This volunteer program is for anyone who is interested in working with Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, takes interest in political science, human rights or the politics of the Middle East, would like to pursue a career in teaching, or is simply looking for ways to give back.

Volunteering with refugees in the West Bank is an excellent opportunity for university students/recent graduates who are looking to build experience in the human rights field. In this program, volunteers will work with Palestinian kids, women, and youths in order to enhance each other’s skills, create mutual understanding, engage in language exchange and make a difference in each other’s lives.

 Volunteers with Palestinian refugees can stay from 1-13 weeks in Hebron, West Bank, they can flexibly choose their starting and ending dates. The center hosts volunteers year-round.

Volunteer with refugees in Summer

This volunteer program is ideal for people who are seeking to engage and volunteer with Palestinian refugees in the summer. The volunteer program is suitable for university students who are looking for internships to gain practical experiences in the area of Palestine and Israel as well as the Middle East.

About Displaced Peoples in Palestine

It comes as a surprise to many that there are Palestinian refugees inside of Palestine. As a matter of fact, the Palestinian diaspora is the largest group of displaced people in the World, with approximately ~ 7.2 million people displaced globally. To understand why so many Palestinian’s are displaced, it is important to understand the history of Palestine, and its circumstances in the 20th and 21st centuries. The Israeli – Arab war of 1948 was sparked because of building tensions between the newly created state of Israel and the surrounding Arab nations who saw its creation as the ultimate expression of European colonialism in the region (All Israeli territory, previously Palestinian, was controlled by the British Empire at the time). 

The ensuing war ended with an Israeli victory, however, much of what was previously designated as neutral land and Palestinian territory as part of the U.N.’s two state solution was seized by Israel. These areas included parts of the Palestinian West Bank such as Hebron, Jerusalem, and much of the region of Gaza.

The end result was the displacement of approximately ~ 711, 000 Palestinians due to the conflict, with many relocating into the remaining territories of Palestine and the neighboring Levantine countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. In addition, this mass displacement has caused many Palestinans to live abroad, predominantly in Europe and the Americas.

Support Palestinian Refugee Camps 

Today, The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) supports 19 Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank– a number that is a decrease from the previously supported 25.

The conditions in these refugee camps are cramped and uncomfortable, for many originally began as expansive tent-cities and throughout the years have developed into cramped, concrete quarters that are overcrowded and lack many public services. Refugee camps in the West Bank have an extremely high population density and often have issues of overcrowding and housing shortages.