On June 20^th 2010, the international volunteers participating in the international volunteering camp which is organized by the International Youth Exchange Program of the Public Relations Department at the University visited Balata Refugee Camp and met with local people there.

The visit was organized in coordination with Yafa Cultural Center in the Camp where local and international volunteers met with some of the people who witnessed the 1948 exodus and lived the harsh moments that this event has brought upon them. They were also familiarized with the different stages of the Palestinian history which were characterized by deportation, death, loss and depression.

The delegation was also made aware of the difficult social, economical and educational conditions that people face everyday as refugees. A number of people who were eyewitnesses of the 1948 exodus and the terrible repercussions it brought upon the Palestinians told their own stories in which they described how they were expelled from their homes and forced to leave their lands, how many of them got separated from their families and the long journey they took to refugee camps.

The volunteers reacted with passion to the stories they heard from the locals who familiarized them with the difficult conditions they faced during and after the 1948 exodus. Such meetings are of great importance since they help in educating others, particularly foreigners, with Palestine's painful past and its challenging present. The Public Relations Department aims, through similar activities, to make the international community aware of the Palestinian cause and the conditions that the Palestinians experience everyday under occupation.