A story and a live broadcast ... a new initiative to block the boredom of children in domestic isolation

Juman Abu Arafa - Occupied Jerusalem

When the evening arrived, the mother gathered her children who were exhausted by electronic games and heavily burdened by distance education, and they got distress and boredom. 19).

In the beginning of the spring, and specifically on March 21, the “Tamkeen” initiative launched a series of virtual activities and activities to face the free time left by emergency conditions in various countries around the world in response to the Corona virus, which was highlighted in the daily "bedtime story" via broadcast Direct on the initiative page in Facebook.

It is mentioned that "Tamkeen" is a women's initiative of Arab researchers and academics, and it is concerned with supporting and empowering distinguished women in all fields in conflict and tension areas, by providing them with support and development spaces.

Storyteller from Al-Aqsa
Eight o'clock in the evening, occupied Jerusalem time, and the storyteller Alaa Abu Hadwan (27 years old) appeared from the heart of Al-Aqsa Mosque to tell the story of "the lie that grew up" and change its layers of voice to simulate the characters of the story, as if several narrators gathered in one narrator. She believes that "children need a beautiful soul as their spirit shows the details of the story, and for the narrator to be closer to them, he must bring out the child inside."

Alaa's story was not via live broadcast, because she chose to race against time before the closure of the Al-Aqsa Mosque because of Corona and record a video clip of herself telling the story inside it, specifically in front of the children's library where she works as a volunteer and reader for the stories since its foundation five years ago.

The positive side of technology
"The Bedtime Story Initiative provides an area of ​​peace and security during these turbulent days, and creates an opportunity to adapt to the newborn and get all that is positive for the child from social media and technological development," Alaa says to Al Jazeera Net.

The bedtime story targets Arab children around the world in the digital space, and works to guide English-speaking children through stories in their language, as well as opens the door to volunteering for storytellers, the mothers who occupied the largest part of them, where they reached thirty orphans waiting their turn to read the story.

Fatima Bajis, the coordinator of external communication in the "Empowerment" initiative, explains to Al-Jazeera Net that they receive daily requests from mothers to join the story-reading initiative, which received a remarkable response from parents and their children.

Fatima pointed out that the live broadcasting allows communication with children during reading and greeting them with their names and following their interaction through comments, adding that the countries from which the mothers broadcasted were Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and the United States.

Technical challenges
Fatima shows that many mothers around the world started with the idea of ​​reading the direct story before the crisis of Corona, and "Tamkeen" continued this good year during the crisis, and will continue until its demise, indicating that the initiative's path is free of difficulties except for some technical problems that were represented by the weakness of the Internet at some Volunteers, reducing broadcast quality.

Minor difficulties also faced Fida Abdel Rahman (28 years), who were choosing the right angle and lighting inside her home to start her first broadcast experience, in addition to challenging the participation of her two children Mohammed (6 years) and Basil (4 years) with her in the broadcast, which necessitated doubling her focus to activate their participation and their appearance The first in front of thousands of followers.

Fidaa recounted the story of "A Wonderful Secret in Jerusalem's Cakes" that she specially acquired to introduce children to Jerusalem through tangible physical evidence that everyone loves, as she carried the sesame-covered cake in her hands during the story, and at the end she displayed drawings of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem cakes made by her two children.

Fida says to Al-Jazeera Net that distance education has drained a long time from the parents and their children, so this initiative came to create an interesting, purposeful and low-cost outlet that brings together the child and his mother, and allows the latter to share her talents through volunteering and reading stories.

Tamkeen Events
Virtual “Tamkeen” events in Corona's time included providing a list of interactive sites useful for mothers and their children, and working on launching the Women’s Distinctive Stories Project throughout history to raise awareness of the importance of women's participation in the public space.

In light of the domestic stone, social networking sites abound with individual and collective initiatives that focused on disseminating extracurricular activities for parents and their children, such as activating popular games and challenging reading, and other sports and cultural events.