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<H1><A HREF="keypoints1.html">Introduction to Hope Flowers School and Community Development Center</A></H1>
<P>Hope Flowers is made up of an elementary and secondary school for young people, plus a center for education and community development, mainly but not exclusively for adults.</P>
<P>The unique methods developed by Hope Flowers have evolved over 25 years, drawn out by the pressure of need in a war-traumatised, occupied country and fuelled by the dedication of its staff and the imagination and brilliance of its founder and those who carry on his work.</P>
<P>The school started out providing a good, enlightened education to children. It was soon discovered that not only the children but also the teachers were profoundly affected by the way the conflict impacted on them. The founder, Hussein Issa, himself a refugee with personal experience of these issues, realised he needed to develop special techniques for transforming harm to advantage.</P>
<P>So counselling and special modalities were introduced to help children share their experiences and understand them. This was introduced into all parts of the curriculum, whether art and drama or gardening, science and languages.</P>
<P>Teachers were also given special care, to help them overcome burn-out and personal frustrations, so that they could better avoid unconsciously passing on tensions and problems to the children. No matter how well motivated they were, they were still under strain - as many teachers are worldwide.</P>
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