Youth play a very prominent role in the betterment of society as they are at an age where they have not yet formed their ideologies and beliefs and are thus impressionable and easily influenced by dangerous ideologies and role models. The beliefs internalized at this age have a huge impact on society given that the youth form and build society since they are the next generation, and they also pass on this knowledge to future generations. Therefore, it is essential that they are exposed to the right influence and learn about the world around them, and the way it regards them. This is where Al-Tufula Centre – and our projects – come in. Our aim is to create a space for youth to be exposed to the politics of their reality and discuss the various issues that impact their lives, especially as Palestinians citizens of Israel and influenced by its education system that do not relate to our identity as Palestinian and reflect the Zionist values. Youths’ political awareness is central in understanding and maintaining their identity and it shapes their perspective on the world around them, and it guides their every decision moving forward. It is an indispensable tool in our fight for freedom and against all operations tools.

Our youth projects started out as a safe and personalized space for girls outside of school, due to a lack of frames for girls at the time of our first project. Our goal was to empower these girls to be confident and to learn their value in a patriarchal society that constantly puts them down. Later, however, we decided to integrate boys as well in our projects as it is essential to educate both genders on the topic of gender and feminism in order to create a society that treats its women better and understands their value beyond being a mother or a sister but rather as autonomous human beings that possess intelligence and skills.

By the end of each project, the participants will have gained leadership skills and political awareness and then recruited younger youths to apply what they learned and to influence the next generation.
The project took different stages the first was named “I am from this city” (2007- 2014), the second stage was “color your town with life” (2015- 2023) reaching to the current project, “The Butterfly Effect”