Early each Saturday morning, An-Najah students can be found gathered at the Center for Community Service in the middle of Nablus. Assembling at this meeting point on their day off, the students split into groups to begin service activities which will spread them across Nablus for the day. Some take to the streets in clean-up and restoration work. Others accompany the sick, transporting them to treatment centers. Another group assists medical teams in government hospitals. Branching out from the University’s campus students can be found painting murals in the children’s wings of treatment centers, distributing information leaflets about donating to orphans’ centers, or visiting the elderly on Saturdays.  

Such community service work is part of the University’s commitment to give back to Palestinian society. In keeping with its philosophy of serving the wider Nablus community, the University designed a community service course which allows students to gain field experience and knowledge in service work. The course also encourages teamwork and prepares students to interact with the society around them and build it.   

Implementing lessons from their community service course, fifty-five students from An-Najah recently carried out work at the Red Crescent-affiliated nursing home in Nablus, including trimming trees, planting seedlings, and cleaning the garden and public sitting areas.

Throughout the winter and spring, An-Najah students have been busy implementing service lessions in Nablus and the surrounding area. For instance, in February of this year, twenty students from An-Najah volunteered for an environmental day in Aqraba village. Working in cooperation with the Mobile Center affiliated with Aqraba’s Community Service Center, students cleared litter and waste from streets and cemeteries.  

Sixteen students from the community service course participated in a community service day in February. The students worked at the Mother Teresa nursing home clearing weeds and trash from the public areas and gardens.

An-Najah students also took part in several volunteer days in the sterilization unit of the Rafidia Public Hospital. The sterilization unit represents an important opportunity for students to put their skills to use because it provides sterile materials and sterilized medical bandages for all Rafidia Public hospital departments. During their volunteer time, students prepared around 5,000 medical bandages.

During March, An-Najah students did a volunteer day in the village of Haja in the governorate of Qalqiliya in cooperation with a mobile center for volunteer activities. Students took part in several activities including, painting the walls of primary schools and high schools, spreading garden sand in school gardens, treating school garden plants for insects, and pruning school trees and flowers. Gardening work was undertaken under the supervision of an agricultural engineer with 19 An-Najah students participating and 10 volunteers from Haja’s mobile center participating.

A number of voluntary days were also coordinated in the Girls’ As-Salahiya School and the Al-‘Aishiya, and Sameer Sa’ad Ad-Deen schools. Activities included cleaning school gardens and removing weeds as well as painting school fences and entrances.   

Additionally, during the month of March An-Najah students contributed to a clean-up day in central Nablus close to Martyrs’ Square. In conjunction with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, students removed litter and waste that had accumulated in the historical ruins of the horse race track. 18 students worked on the clean-up project, filling a jumbo sized waste receptacle.  

The Director of the Community Service Center noted that the field results from service activities surpassed all the University’s expectations in terms of the number of University volunteers, the number of community participants, and the number of contributing partner organizations. He also said that the Community Service Center regularly receives thank you cards and letters from organizations where students have worked, expressing how much of a difference the students’ work made. He thanked all the staff and volunteers of the Center and in particular he noted that special thanks were due to Baheej Nasasareh, the field coordinator of Center activities.