Welcome, multicultural viewers, to this edition of Good People, Good Works, featuring Palestine’s Holy Land Trust. The Holy Land Trust is a Bethlehem-based non-profit group formed in １９９８ that works with children, youth, families and non-governmental organizations to create a healthy, vibrant Palestinian society by promoting peace. To achieve a better future for the Palestinian people the Trust operates community awareness programs, local and international advocacy initiatives, and partnership programs.

Lubna Bandak (f): My name is Lubna Bandak. I have been working with the Holy Land Trust as the Administrative Director for one year and a half. Our main goal at the Holy Land Trust is to empower people for the future.

Lubna Bandak (f): This goal means starting with people and ending with people. So our main focus is people, how to (raise) awareness (of) people through our nonviolence training activities.

HOST: The Trust arose from a merger of the Palestinian Center for the Study of Nonviolence, created by Dr. Mubarak Awad and a group known as The Journey of the Magi. Dr. Awad’s Center published and distributed Arabic language materials on peaceful living such as the writings of Abdul Ghaffar Khan, who worked with
Mahatma Gandhi in India. The Journey of the Magi brought Muslims, Christians and members of other faiths together during the millennium to celebrate Jesus Christ’s birth in Bethlehem.Since its formation, the Holy Land Trust has worked with the local Palestinian community. Ms. Bandak explains how the Trust conducts its peace training.