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I was in Calgary recently and met Vicky Perkins of Canpalnet-Calgary.  She told me the story below and I encouraged her to write it down and share it with others.  I find hearing about all the different ways that people across Canada are helping to build awareness about Palestine very encouraging.  Her story has really motivated me to make time to get out into the public in the coming year.  I hope others will have the same reaction.  It is very  important to get out of our e-mail, activist and academic circles into the wider public.  The  partnership between Sowers of Hope in Montreal and World Vision Canada to raise money for Nahallin, a village that is to be completely enclosed by the wall, could help us all do this.  If you would like to see the brochure on the Wall produced for this project please e-mail me.

Linda Belanger
Canpalnet-Ottawa

Activists are always looking for new ways to raise awareness.  Canpalnet-Calgary recently tried a different approach.

 On Dec. 22, four of us stood beside two of Calgary's downtown C-train stations wearing Santa hats. In less than an hour we handed out 500 candy canes attached to colourful cards printed with the following message: "Merry Christmas from a Palestinian who hasn't had one in 37 years. This is the 38th Christmas Palestinians have lived under Israeli military occupation. CanPalNetCalgary.ca"

The majority of people grabbed the candy canes on the run, blurting "Thank you!" as they hurried on their way. One person read the card and returned it. One commented that Palestinians don't celebrate Christmas, providing an opportunity to inform her that some Palestinians are Christian. Our aim was to advertise our website and get people thinking, without creating negative feelings about misuse of the "peaceful" Christmas season. It will be hard to tell if we were successful, but despite frozen fingers and toes, we had a great time. In this game a day like that is a treasure.

Vicki Perkins
Canpalnet-Calgary

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