The Jerusalem Consortium for Research and Development ( JCRD ) is an independent Palestinian nongovernmental organization ( NGO ) established in East Jerusalem in the year 2004.

JCRD is registered under the number (580431567) as an NGO on 21th October 2004

The strategic core of JCRD is to support researches necessary to identify and solve the urgent problems and necessities of our Palestinian people in areas of social development , humanitarian services , and business supporting .

JCRD established Jerusalem Kindergartens as a start and now working on establishing the day care center, as well as a school project ongoing.

 

For the last three years, our Organization has worked and concentrated on the educational aspect in general and the children’s in particular. The Organization’s first goal is to improve children’s education and the quality of life they have in east Jerusalem.

As a result of that, the Organization has performed several researches (studies) related to children’s educational situation within the Arabic section in east Jerusalem. According to the details received from the statistics of Jerusalem’s municipality, turns out that there is a need of 120 kindergartens classes in east Jerusalem. Our professional people in the Organization have done field study to the kindergartens in the east Jerusalem area and they found out extremely difficult and poor conditions, under which children are in these so called kindergartens. The initial problem that they suffer from is the over crowded rooms, along with the unhealthy atmosphere all over them. This drastic and hard situation has encouraged us to establish a new kindergarten with a new idea from all the aspects: the structural, the educational, and mainly the ideological one.

The Jerusalem kindergarten’s unique Ideology can be seen and felt through:

  1. The basic structure of the kindergarten, all is designated exclusively for children’s comfort. It is manifested in the chairs which are all natural wood designed and don’t have any harmful materials for the kids. All the rooms are air conditioned. There are computers and internet stations, suitable only for the children. Every parent has a personal code through the kindergarten’s website by which he/she would be able, wherever they are at the same moment, to see what their kid is doing, and how the teacher and the other kids are behaving with him/her. In additional to this, there’s a big cinema room which would serve the children for learning and enjoyment.

 

 

  1. The classroom doesn’t include more than 20 kids Max, with a teacher and her assistance who have academic degree approved from the Ministry of Education, professional, talented and qualified ones. The fact that we only have this number of kids in each class enables the teacher to pay attention to every single child from all the aspects: his academic level, his attitude and his unique potential, and the suitable way to cultivate it. It’s important to clarify here that our aspiration to handle an educator and not only a teacher.
  2. The educational ideology that the Organization in general, and the kindergarten in particular espouse of. We teach in modern educational ways of teaching, all is presented to the child through games and playing teaching tools.
  3. The importance that we attribute to the informal education not as a complementary and secondary way of learning as it is used to be till now in most of the educational institutions. But as a method that can’t be waived in the children’s process of learning. It’s talked about enriching courses in computers, music, theatre, arts, dancing and karate and much more.

 

Most children aged 3 years old, either that they stay at home with their mothers, spending their time uselessly, watching TV programs which are apparently designated for children, however they contain violence presented in more funny ways.

The other part of the children attends private kindergartens, which aren’t approved by the Ministry of Education. Unfortunately, the kindergarten’s conditions in east Jerusalem is sadly deteriorating, it’s manifested through:

  • Firstly, those kindergartens aren’t properly made for the children, or aren’t built according to the standards needed for this kind of operation.
  • They espouse political ideologies based on the founder’s and they teach it to a whole generation of children. Therefore, children are educated according to values and beliefs that they were convinced to be the only right things since they haven’t been exposed to any others.
  • We are all conscious to the fact that kids in this specific and young age; they easily accept and acquire the knowledge they are provided. Meaning, we can control and design their character, thoughts and values, all as we give them.
  • We want to end up with the liberal kid with loving values to all, and sees himself as one of that all.

 

We aspire to educate our children for absolute peace values: accept the other exactly as he is and live with him. Visits will be handled between our kindergarten and others: Arabs and Israelis. These visits will contribute much to the child’s personality. Suddenly, for the first time, he’s exposed to children from another nationality, which he has been convinced that he shouldn’t talk to since they are his enemies. However, meeting after meeting, the child himself experiences, learns, understands and assimilates the other different. Moreover, his exposure to the other nation doesn’t cease here; on the contrary, the process has just begun. He transforms it to his own world: home, neighborhood and society.

 

Our ideology that we espouse of and aspire to implement in our kindergarten is liberal. Through this, the child will pass between two totally different worlds; he’ll be transformed from the violence’s environment to which he has been exposed to till now, whether directly or indirectly without his awareness. Along with this, he’ll pass to a completely new world in which the coexistence’s value turned to be a way of life.

According to what has been mentioned above, we are in a great need of a professional team, since the teacher and her assistance wouldn’t be able to perform all the needed missions. We shouldn’t ignore their essential role of the psychology in order to discern from young age, the problems that they suffer from, and deal with it accordingly, and solve them. In addition to the cooperation with the children’s health center, we examine their academic, personal and social problems.

Recently, unfortunately, due to the lack of knowledge and awareness, the parents discover and face their children’s problem in a very late age whereas they could have solved it from its beginning. For example, they discover that their child tolerates from learning disabilities when he’s in the 6th grade, only then they try to extract the problem, forcing the child to change all his way of life in order to compete with his current situation hoping for the better.

 

In other words, a successful work is achieved by the interference of three objects:

  1. The kindergarten’s teaching team: teachers and their assistances.
  2. The professional team: psychologists, social workers and the child’s health center.
  3. Parents.

 

 

In addition to the kindergarten, the Organization has other educational and sociable programs for children as well as for women.

 

The children’s projects concentrate on the academic part as well as the personality and the psychological one.

Enrichment and studying program: for students from the 1st till 6th grade.

Students will attend three times a week, everyday for 2 hours. They will study: Arabic, English and Math. Children will be taught how to acquire academic skills in these subjects, therefore they’ll begin to learn how to think according to these subjects.

 

 

Jerusalem Consortium for Research and Development (JCRD)

 

Name and Address of NGO:

 

 

Full Name of Institution (in English): Jerusalem Consortium for Research and Development (JCRD)

 

Full Name of Institution (in Arabic): القدس للبحوث والتنمية

Location Address : Jerusalem Biet Haniena near the main mousque

Postal Adress : P.O.Box: 20597

Telephone : 972-2-5832924 Fax : 972-2-5832930

Contact Person : Mahmoud Jamal

Mobile : 0547699671

 

Type of Organization:

¨ Charitable Society

¨ Cooperative Society

¨ Non-profit Company

 

Registration:

Place of Registration : jerusalem Registration Number : 580431567

Date of Establishment : 21-10-2004

Date of Commencement of Activities: 2005

 

 

Donation Contact :

Beneficiaries Account # : 317465

ARAB BANK Plc

BETHANY BRANCH

PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES

SWIFT CODE: ARABPS22100

CORRESPONDENT BANK FOR USD OPERATIONS: CREDIT SUISSE - ZURICH

CORRESPONDENT BANK FOR EURO OPERATIONS: EUROPE ARAB BANK - FRANKFURT

CORRESPONDENT BANK FOR GBP OPERATIONS: EUROPE ARAB BANK - LONDON