The Martín-Baró Initiative at Grassroots International is providing a second year of funding to the CURCUM Collective in collaboration with the Lajee Center to further their development and use of a training guide for Palestinian Community Health Workers (CHWs). The collective is a coalition of indigenous Palestinian activists, social workers, psychologists, CHWs, and leaders of local grassroots organizations and the Lajee Center in the Aida Refugee Camp. Funds from last year enabled the collective to hire a psychosocial supervisor/healing justice practitioner to provide weekly in-person support for the CHWs. Weekly healing justice circles enabled CHWs to reflect upon and deepen their understanding of the colonial conditions and psycho-political circumstances affecting their own well-being and that of the families they serve. Funding also facilitated the completion and printing of a first iteration of a workbook focusing on healing justice for use by the CHWs. 

Funding in 2022 will enable the CURCUM Collective and Lajee Center to provide five months of intensive training using the workbook that they have developed, training that will enable the CHWs to help refine the workbook to better meet their needs. Funding will also allow CURCUM to print copies of the revised workbook to share with partners in Gaza and with other refugee camps in the West Bank.