“What are you doing after school?”
3- minute read
A question we can recall asking our friends as we made plans of afterschool freedom as a young kid. As educational leaders, we continually see this as an area of opportunity to give all the students of Jericho one easy answer.
#3: After School Programs
“Whatever I missed in my childhood, I am trying to do with these kids so they will have more experiences when they grow older,” Simon Shaheen, The Director of Seeds of Hope’s Cultural Center, said. “At the Cultural Center, we don’t follow a certain curriculum like other schools. We create our own curriculum to fill in what’s missing in our kids’ lives, especially in Jericho where kids’ activities are limited.”
As the Cultural Center at Seeds of Hope has many different purposes, a majority of the attention is spent on our ever growing After School Program (ASP). Currently, we have the ASP for 2nd-6th graders; sport, art and English camps and courses for adults and children; and Open Day where we are able to extend our reach to over 600 students in the community, giving more kids more opportunities than they would receive elsewhere.
Our Ears are Open
“Everyone gives their kids a chance to speak, but we give our kids a chance to speak and be heard. Our ears are always open to hear both their happy and sad moments,” Simon said.
While the curriculum centers around expanding knowledge of the world outside the West Bank, Regina Shaheen, Simon Shaheen, and Sean Dinno educate on professional skills while continually focusing on good morals and strong character traits.
“We focus on values, manners and morals. We are trying to plant the seeds in our kids,” Simon Shaheen said. “We tell them to come to us with their problems so that in the future they can learn how to best solve their own problems.”
Parents Are Grateful
The impact of the Cultural Center has made parents grow to trust the nurturing aspects that Seeds of Hope brings to their family. “The parents are always telling us that we are a second home to these kids,” Regina Shaheen, a teacher at Seeds of Hope, said. “And, we can mentor them to become leaders because of this blessing from the parents. They have become part of our family. This is an honored position they give us in their lives.”
Click here to support the After-School Program, and sponsor a child to grow with a family of teachers and group of mentors who care so much:
Stay tuned for the next blog post about…
#4: Teaching Core Values to the Next Generation.
Always Growing,
Seeds of Hope
