Mission Statement
The main aim of the Lajee Center is to provide refugee youth and women within our society who would otherwise be forgotten, with cultural, educational, social and developmental opportunities to help them thrive and grow our community.
Goals
Lajee seeks to encourage and enhance the talents of members by supporting and fostering their cultural, artistic and rights-based development through our programs. We believe that by providing the new generations with developmental opportunities, we will give them the motivation and the skills necessary to pursue their interests and vocations through their future. All the Center’s activities aim to provide members with a key to their future and a conviction that they are the makers of their own future. All our activities are organized by supportive members of the community, and our programs depend entirely on the voluntary efforts of our members, with some support from related institutions and interested individuals. Our full-time volunteers include several who have grown with Lajee since they themselves were child members and who now run projects and activities with the next generation, and some have passed on to become board members within Lajee.
Lajee Center's Ideology
Lajee Center works in full support of all national, human, and moral rights without exception. Much of our project work focuses in some way on the inalienable ‘Right of Return’ for all refugees as stipulated in United Nations resolution number 194 (December 1948). Lajee Center refuses any financial support from Palestinian political factions so as to not foster or support in any way any favoritism or divisions within Palestinian society in the belief that Palestine and Palestinians must be unified to be strong. Lajee Center refuses the division of Palestinian people on any level, this belief includes the implementation of all projects and work on an inclusive mixed-gender basis. Lajee Center is an active signatory to the 2005 Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against the Israeli regime. Our commitment to BDS includes full practice of all aspects of BDS in our work and the spreading of information and awareness about BDS through networking, workshops, and education.