With funding from the Stamford community, a group of six young people from the Afula/Gilboa region participated in a "Seeds for Peace" summer camp in Maine this past summer and reported from the camp about their amazing experiences. "Seeds of Peace" is an international organization dedicated to empowering young leaders from the Middle East with the leadership skills required to advance reconciliation and coexistence. The camp was attended by Israeli, Palestinian, Jordanian, Egyptian and American young people who met on a daily 90 minute discussion to consider various issues relating to their co-existence.

 The remaining hours of the day were spent having fun together, enjoying various sporting activities, competition and joint projects.

"I am learning mainly to listen, to become acquainted with other people, who while they may be different from me, actually live only 20 minutes away from my home. I learned a lot about other cultures" said Tal Weitzman, a 15 year old young woman who participated in the program and made many new friends, among them Abdallah, a 15 year old young man from Jordan, who even remembered her birthday and sent a gift to Tal in Israel.

"There were some difficult segments, those who thought that we are looking for pity through our own personal stories, but slowly all of us learned to become more patient."

Tal and her friends returned home full of motivation to share their experiences with their friends and neighbors and already are participating in existing co-existance programs conducted in the Gilboa region.