For the past three years, Freedom Summer Palestine has offered a range of educational activities and workshops designed to enhance the creativity and leadership of youth within the Aida refugee camp in the West Bank, north of Bethlehem. Artistic and cultural training includes photography, music, dance, theater and creative writing through which youth analyze and represent their experiences of separation due to the wall. Workshops focus on facilitating youth’s expressivity and creativity through which they can better support themselves and others in the community in their activist campaigns of resistance.

The funds from the Martín-Baró Fund were used to provide training to individuals in art therapy, human rights, and advocacy, as well as to provide refreshments for community events and transportation to and from events. Through workshops and advocacy, Freedom Summer contributes to youth’s enhanced engagement within the Palestinian community and evokes for some the Freedom Summer Civil Rights projects in the U.S. more than 50 years ago.