Infrastructure in the Bedouin neighborhood of Taibeh:
1. Roads: The Bedouin neighborhood has been suffering from lack of planned infrastructure for more than 20 years now. Such infrastructure simply does not exist. People in the neighborhood have contributed land to the pavement of roads that will serve the entire neighborhood. The residents have constructed houses in order to have shelter from the summer’s heat and winter’s chilliness. The number of houses constructed with building permits does not extend more than five such houses in the entire neighborhood.
2. Water: we drink our water out of an agricultural well. This well is located near the neighborhood. The municipality still refuses to connect the Bedouin neighborhood to the nearby water network set up near Taibeh’s industrial zone.
3. Sewage: There is no organized sewage network in the Bedouin neighborhood. The residents have had to dig trenches, four meters or deeper, in order to fulfill our needs, and sometimes the sewage runs through the neighborhood.
4. Electricity: The Bedouin neighborhood does not have an organized electrical foundation. A few years ago some houses received a permit to connect to the electrical network. Most houses have obtained electricity illegally. Since there is no organized infrastructure in the neighborhood, the Electrical Company does not connect the houses in the neighborhood to the electricity.
Services:
1. Education: Education is a basic human right. The neighborhood’s residents, both old and young, have no educational facilities, kindergartens, or schools, even though the neighborhood holds nearly 300 pupils. These pupils study in various schools in Taibeh, except for the Alzahra School, which refuses to accept Bedouin pupils. These pupils normally reach very low accomplishments in school and are not able to fit into the educational system.
There is both open and hidden dropout from schools in the city as a result of hostile treatment, lack of care on the side of the local teachers. It is unacceptable that not even 10 percent of the 300 pupils are successful in school. If this is indicative of something it is only of the way the Bedouin pupils are being underestimated for being Bedouin. The dropout of Bedouin pupils begins at secondary school (8th grade), for three reasons:
1. The feeling that “there is no reason to be in school”: Students that lack attention from teachers feel helpless. One dropping out student told us: “I have no reason to be in school when I have such low accomplishments. It is a shame on the money my father pays for school or for school books”. This reflects the feelings of many of Bedouin pupils.
2. Dropout among girls: As a result of the educational situation and lack of security in the town, female pupils end up not going to school. Parents make hard decisions which badly affect their girls because they fear something might happen to them.
3. Parents’ objection to sending their children to school due to its distance from their home and the disinterest in having the children learn with pupils who differ in dialect, tradition, culture and values.
1. Roads: The Bedouin neighborhood has been suffering from lack of planned infrastructure for more than 20 years now. Such infrastructure simply does not exist. People in the neighborhood have contributed land to the pavement of roads that will serve the entire neighborhood. The residents have constructed houses in order to have shelter from the summer’s heat and winter’s chilliness. The number of houses constructed with building permits does not extend more than five such houses in the entire neighborhood.
2. Water: we drink our water out of an agricultural well. This well is located near the neighborhood. The municipality still refuses to connect the Bedouin neighborhood to the nearby water network set up near Taibeh’s industrial zone.
3. Sewage: There is no organized sewage network in the Bedouin neighborhood. The residents have had to dig trenches, four meters or deeper, in order to fulfill our needs, and sometimes the sewage runs through the neighborhood.
4. Electricity: The Bedouin neighborhood does not have an organized electrical foundation. A few years ago some houses received a permit to connect to the electrical network. Most houses have obtained electricity illegally. Since there is no organized infrastructure in the neighborhood, the Electrical Company does not connect the houses in the neighborhood to the electricity.
Services:
1. Education: Education is a basic human right. The neighborhood’s residents, both old and young, have no educational facilities, kindergartens, or schools, even though the neighborhood holds nearly 300 pupils. These pupils study in various schools in Taibeh, except for the Alzahra School, which refuses to accept Bedouin pupils. These pupils normally reach very low accomplishments in school and are not able to fit into the educational system.
There is both open and hidden dropout from schools in the city as a result of hostile treatment, lack of care on the side of the local teachers. It is unacceptable that not even 10 percent of the 300 pupils are successful in school. If this is indicative of something it is only of the way the Bedouin pupils are being underestimated for being Bedouin. The dropout of Bedouin pupils begins at secondary school (8th grade), for three reasons:
1. The feeling that “there is no reason to be in school”: Students that lack attention from teachers feel helpless. One dropping out student told us: “I have no reason to be in school when I have such low accomplishments. It is a shame on the money my father pays for school or for school books”. This reflects the feelings of many of Bedouin pupils.
2. Dropout among girls: As a result of the educational situation and lack of security in the town, female pupils end up not going to school. Parents make hard decisions which badly affect their girls because they fear something might happen to them.
3. Parents’ objection to sending their children to school due to its distance from their home and the disinterest in having the children learn with pupils who differ in dialect, tradition, culture and values.
