The Impact of Volunteering in Palestine: Volunteering is a great way to build skills, see new places, meet new people, and make a difference in the community. International volunteering in places with a greater social need can be a great way to spend a summer break or a gap in your career. The impact of volunteering is often a two-way street. You can use your skills, experience, or expertise to help people who need it. In return, you get to learn yourself, gain experience, and expand your knowledge.

Have you ever thought about volunteering in Palestine? It might not be the first place that comes to mind when you think about planning a week or a few months abroad. However, there are many great reasons why you should consider spending time in this wonderful place. Aside from the welcoming people, the delicious food, and the rich history of the land, volunteering gives you an opportunity to use your time to make a big impact in Palestinian communities. Read on to find out how! 

Direct Impact on Palestinian Communities

Volunteering directly impacts Palestinian communities, from your activities to the restaurants you eat at!

There are three key ways that your time in Palestine can make a real difference to the community you’re based in: 

Supporting Education

Good education is essential to a thriving population. In some parts of the West Bank, especially the many refugee camps, education is unreliable or easily accessible. Volunteering to help improve education for children and adults is a really valuable way to help contribute to local communities. Volunteers can do this through activities like teaching English, running workshops, or supporting literacy programs. 

Empowering Marginalised Groups

Like anywhere, some groups in Palestine have less power and less access to resources. Volunteering in the West Bank can help support vulnerable groups like women, youth, and refugees by providing skills training, professional mentorship, and opportunities for cultural exchange.  

Economic Contributions

The positive impact of volunteering doesn’t just come from the program activities you undertake; it also comes from your economic footprint! Especially when not many tourists visit Palestine, volunteers help sustain local businesses through the hotels they stay at, the restaurants they eat at, and the sustainable tourism they engage in. Many people’s livelihoods, and those of their families, rely on income from small businesses like these. 

Strengthening Cultural Understanding and Solidarity

One of the most rewarding aspects of volunteering is fostering cross-cultural exchange. The more time you spend with people from different places, learning about different parts of the world, the richer your life can be. 

Palestine is a welcoming place full of history, culture, and tradition. Spending time in the West Bank is a great opportunity to learn through immersion. People are very friendly, and hospitality is important, so you will likely be invited to celebrate weddings, birthdays, and some religious holidays. This gives a unique look-in to daily life here.

Conversely, spending time with international people is of great value to locals. For many Palestinians, travel is difficult – if not impossible – so interaction with people worldwide allows them to broaden their horizons and practice English with native speakers. 

Advocating for Palestine can have much more impact when you speak from your own experience. Spending time in Palestine equips volunteers with the ability to advocate for human rights and increase awareness about Palestinian resilience and the challenges they face. 

A recent volunteer, Eva, shares her experience of how volunteering in Palestine helped develop her cultural understanding and solidarity: “I studied Israel/Palestine at University, and felt like I had a pretty good knowledge of the conflict from an academic standpoint. However, the experience of being here is completely different. Seeing the restriction on people’s movement firsthand, car searches at checkpoints, hearing stories of loss – but then seeing the continued resilience of the people here that I have come to call friends is unlike anything I’ve experienced before. I feel like I have a brand new depth of understanding that is impossible to get from the page.”

Inspiring Hope and Resilience

It might not sound like much, but even the presence of international volunteers can have a positive impact on Palestinian communities. Some places around Hebron, especially smaller villages next to Israeli settlements like Umm Al Khayer, fear demolitions, attacks, and cuts to basic services from settlers and soldiers. These communities often invite international people to stay with them, which can help prevent violence and provide witnesses to the experience of Palestinian life under occupation. This is important both to help people go about their daily lives with less fear and to show them they are not forgotten by the world. 

Volunteer presence can also help amplify local organizations’ efforts by supporting their activities and giving them more visibility. For example, volunteers often contribute to community events, such as cultural exchange programs and public advocacy campaigns, helping to share Palestinian narratives with a broader audience. In refugee camps like Al-Fawwar, volunteers support English teaching for children, assist with local projects, and document human rights issues, bringing international visibility to challenges on the ground. Volunteers can help reinforce local resilience by working alongside Palestinian-led initiatives and ensuring their contributions align with community needs.

Personal Growth and Development for Volunteers

Volunteering in Palestine doesn’t just positively impact the people and communities people work with; it also has a lasting impact on the volunteers themselves. During their time in Palestine, volunteers are able to develop existing skills or build valuable new ones, like teaching, teamwork, cross-cultural communication, and problem-solving. Having practical experience in these areas is an asset for future employment or life in general. 

People volunteering with Volunteer in Palestine often speak about the deeply personal impact of their experience. Working in a conflict-affected area like the West Bank exposes volunteers to a kind of reality many of them have never personally experienced. Hearing the stories of loss, survival, and resilience gives a different perspective, shaping people’s worldviews and personal values – sometimes even the trajectory of their lives. 

The Long-Term Impact of Volunteering in Palestine on Communities

While our volunteers typically spend between one week and three months in Hebron (the maximum offered on a tourist visa by Israel), the long-term impact of volunteers on local communities is significant. Volunteer programs through Volunteer in Palestine focus on education, skills, and capacity building, which have a long-lasting effect on the people they work with. 

More intangible but no less important is the long-term impact of volunteering on breaking social barriers. Volunteering helps build mutual understanding and respect between Palestinians and people worldwide, reducing narrow stereotypes and creating a rich social fabric across borders. During their time here, volunteers tend to create meaningful relationships with local people, from the Center staff to the shopkeepers of Ein Sara Street to the children at Al Fawwar refugee camp. These connections are beneficial for local and international alike. 

The Ripple Effect of Volunteering

Coming to volunteer in Palestine might feel like a very personal thing to do, but the ripple effects of time spent here can easily become waves of impact. 

Through their experiences in the West Bank, volunteers often inspire their friends, family, and wider communities to get further involved and support the Palestinian cause. Even small actions from volunteers can lead to much larger movements for awareness and advocacy. 

In 2024, a volunteer from Ireland named Stephen came to spend time at Volunteer in Palestine, inspired by his country’s solidarity with the Palestinian cause. Over the last year, he has spent time setting up two Gaelic football teams in Ramallah and Jenin, with a view to starting another in Hebron. As a result of his time volunteering in Palestine, Stephen is now using sport as a tool for change, helping to bring people together in the community. 

Many other people either continue or increase their advocacy at home with a renewed sense of purpose and a deeper understanding of the reality on the ground. This can take the form of online advocacy on their own platforms, speaking with family and friends about their experiences, or speaking with local media outlets. 

Collective action is powerful. The more people think about and speak about Palestine, the more potential there is for change. 

Real-Life Stories of Impact

Qatada was 16 years old when he started English classes at Volunteer in Palestine. He was really interested in learning the ‘world’s language’ because it would help him connect with different people and open up more opportunities for his future. However, besides a few words he’d picked up at school, he was starting from scratch. 

Qatada’s first teachers, Mr. Ibrahim and Mr. Isaac helped lay a strong foundation and build vocabulary. The combination of great teachers and a real desire to learn meant that he improved quickly. Qatada completed his intermediate-level English with a Centre volunteer from the United States. He found that learning from a native speaker really helped take his spoken English to the next level. 

Now 20 years old, Qatada is close to fluent in English. Although he no longer needs to take classes, he’s still seen around the Center most days, where he volunteers in addition to his University studies. Qatada helps new international volunteers settle in and get acquainted with Hebron city, teaching them about the local culture and history (and sometimes helping with their Arabic homework). In the future, he hopes to travel to Europe and see more of the world. 

For Qatada, spending time with Volunteer in Palestine has been an incredibly valuable experience. It allowed him to meet many new people, learn about new religions and cultures, and open his mind to the world outside his home city of Hebron. Interacting with people from diverse backgrounds also taught him to be more respectful of differences.  

Qatada’s story is just one of the many youth, women, and refugees that benefit from the activities of Volunteer in Palestine. 

While the Center’s activities significantly impact the local community, our international volunteers also gain a lot of value from their time in the West Bank. They often talk about their experience in Palestine as changing their lives and shifting their perspectives.

Alicia, a 27-year-old volunteer from the United States who spent time at Volunteer in Palestine in 2024, reflects on her time here: 

“My overall experience at Volunteer in Palestine was so wonderful that I can’t wait to return next year! Marwa and Osama feel like my family now, and I am excited to try to come back and do some ride-along work with the photojournalists I have been introduced to. Palestine was all I thought about for the year and some change before I came to volunteer, and now Palestine fills my heart as well as my mind.”

Why Volunteering in Palestine Matters Now?

2025 will be a pivotal year for the future of Palestine and the Palestinian cause. Events like the ceasefire in Gaza and the change of leadership in the United States are impacting security in the West Bank and increasing the need for additional volunteer support. Many programs are available to suit all backgrounds and experience levels and address critical gaps across Palestinian communities. 

Importantly, international solidarity with the Palestinian cause has never been more necessary. This is your invitation to look beyond the headlines and join our community, hearing stories directly from local people and witnessing Palestinian resilience firsthand. 

6 Impactful Volunteer Programs in Palestine 2025/2026

1. Volunteer with Palestinian Refugees

2. Internship with Palestinian Children

3. Volunteer With Palestinian Communities

4. Human Rights Volunteer Program in Palestine

5. Teach English And Study Arabic

6. Community Development Volunteer Program

How to Apply and Make an Impact While Volunteering in Palestine

If you’re interested in volunteering in Palestine and making an impact on the Palestinian community, please email us at Info@ecpalestine.org. We’ll send you an application form to complete and return, and we’ll guide you through the next steps of the process.

Get Further Information 

For more information, please visit our website: https://volunteerinpalestine.org/

The Excellence Center in Palestine: https://excellencenter.org/

Engage in Palestine: https://ecpalestine.org/

WhatsApp:+972 599 479 880

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/excellence.center

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ExcellenceCenter

Facebook account: https://www.facebook.com/RafatECHebron

Watch us on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsQSLdFZWZcBm6Uj0XMYuKg

Visit and Explore Palestine: https://www.facebook.com/ExplorePalestine

Tags: Community development Palestine, NGO work in Palestine, Palestine volunteer programs, Volunteer Abroad Palestine, Volunteer opportunities Palestine