Works for the Understanding and Peace in the Middle East

NECEF

Activities

NECEF was one of the first NGO’s during the first Intifada to respond to the call by Palestinian mental health professionals for training and support to cope with the impact of Israeli army and settler violence.

NECEF developed and managed a series of CIDA and Health Canada– supported mental health projects (Partners for Children Fund) in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The aim was to build local capacity by drawing on the expertise of Canadian psychiatrists and other mental health professionals.

After the Lebanese civil war, NECEF extended its mental health projects to Lebanon. In cooperation with Palestinian and Lebanese Partners, projects were designed to help their mental health professionals, social workers, and family and childcare workers cope with the effects of conflict, violence and torture.

Major Partners have included The Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, the Palestinian Counseling Center, Birzeit University, The Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees (UPMRC), and Beirut University College (Now renamed the Lebanese American University).

 

Humanitarian Activities

NECEF is a key layer in a Canadian network of NGO’s arranging speaking tours. Prominent speakers have included Noam Chomsky, Nasser Aruri, Norman Finkelstein, Jack Shaheen, John Quigley, and the late Matti Peled, Israel Shahak, and Edward Said.

 

Educational Activities

NECEF has built strong connections between like-minded NGO’s and the United Nations. NECEF served for ten years on the North American Coordinating Committee for NGO’s on the Question of Palestine (NACC), and for seven years on the International Coordinating Committee on Palestine (ICCP).

These Committees linked NGOs supporting a right-based peace conforming to the requirements of international law and relevant UN resolutions to the UN.

International Activities

Near East Cultural and Educational Foundation

of Canada