The Hands Up Project now has a permanent space in Totnes — and it’s full of powerful stories, creativity, and connection.

Open between Monday and Friday between 9am and 5pm at the Angel in Totnes.

You can explore the new ‘Take Me to the Sky’ poetry exhibition, the moving ‘Dress of Impossible’ stitched with tears from the Pilgrimage for Palestine, and a collection of books that share young Palestinian voices with the world.

This space will also be a place to link with Gaza and beyond — through art, conversation, and solidarity.

They project would like to give thanks to Nicky and Clare at The Angel in Totnes for hosting them over the next three months.

The Hands Up Project is a charity trust which, through its network of volunteers, connects children around the world with young people in Palestine.

By means of online interaction, drama and storytelling activities, it enables the use of creativity and self-expression to promote mutual understanding, personal growth and the development of English language skills.

The Hands Up Project is committed to social justice, global citizenship, and freedom of expression, and upholds the belief that language learning is enhanced through creativity, performance and collaborative interaction.

To these ends, the project affords opportunities for children in difficult circumstances, such as Palestine, to use English to communicate with one another across borders in a “spirit of peace, dignity, tolerance, freedom, equality and solidarity.” UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989.

Before the pandemic their remote volunteers around the world and Palestine based volunteers ran co-taught Zoom sessions for classes in Palestine and refugee camps in Jordan - accessing around 500 children a week.

When the pandemic kicked in and schools around the world closed, at the request of Palestinian teachers, they ran daily team-taught Facebook Live sessions and, with UNRWA Gaza, won the prestigious British Council ELTons Local Innovations award.