In 1984, following a study assessing the needs of the Kalandia Refugee Camp and surrounding areas, the Cooperative decided to establish a kindergarten for the children of these localities. Hence, on September 1st, 1984, the Cooperative opened the doors of its new kindergarten to the neighboring community.

Since its inception, the kindergarten has served as a preschool teaching facility and day-care center for children 3-5 years age. By facilitating basic learning tools and toys, and providing additional care, the kindergarten allows the children to play and learn in joyful, safe environment. This experience enhances their ability to enter and adapt to the formal school atmosphere that they will encounter later on, and to enjoy a healthy early-childhood development. The kindergarten's staff also provides parents with guidance in basic psychological and physiological methodology aimed at fostering the continuation of the child's development at home. In addition, this valuable service allows the children's mothers to work during the day and earn a decent living. A regular kindergarten school year in Palestine starts on the first week of September and ends on the first week of June (9 months). The Cooperative's kindergarten receives 45 children everyday except Friday, from 7:30 AM until 2:00 PM. The kindergarten is currently based on the first floor of the Cooperative, occupying a total area of 260 sq. meters. This space is divided into two separate classrooms, a bathroom, kitchen and a hall for indoor activities. The kindergarten faces a problem of long term financial sustainability. The symbolic fees do not cover the real costs of its services provided and most of the families from the camp are not even able to pay these fees where most of the families who have their children in the cooperative's kindergarten are very low-income household. On the present summer of the year 2002 the cooperative received a generous support from the Welfare Association to rehabilitate the infrastructure, and to build a modest kitchen in order to improve the current learning environment for the children.

Similarly, the Cooperative has been conducting periodic awareness campaigns aiming to foster the healthy development of the community of the Kalandia Camp and surrounding areas. The sociopolitical problems of the Palestinian society are plentiful, and the Cooperative has constantly tried to alleviate them through active awareness campaigns on social, economic and health issues. Awareness/Educational campaigns carried out in the past include health education, family planning, literacy, home economics, personal care for mothers and children, early and close-relative marriages, income generating training courses and others. The Cooperative firmly believes that through increased awareness and education on the most important issues facing Palestinian women and children, change will come at last.

Over the years, the Cooperative has been able to reach out and educate women from the Kalandia camp and surrounding areas through numerous workshops and seminars dealing with these touchy issues. However, there is a large number of women in the villages and refugee camps of the Central West Bank region whose needs have not been attended by any organization.

This grave situation constitutes a major hurdle in the development and empowerment of Palestinian women. The Cooperative feels that more effort must be placed on reaching out to and educating these women. In fact, this step constitutes one of the main objectives of the Kalandia Camp Womens Handicraft Cooperative for the near future, and is a crucial component of its struggle to raise the social and economic standards of women in Palestine.

Kalandia Camp Cooperatives believes that improving the conditions of women is a key step in the development of healthier society. Therefore, all of the cooperatives efforts are directed towards the general goal of raising the educational, social, cultural and health standards of women and children in Palestine, and ensuring that through their empowerment they will play leading roles in their society.

With the generous support of the British Consulate General, the Netherlands Representative Office to the PNA and the Canada Fund for Local Initiative, the Cooperative was able to open a Nursery on September 1st, 1998 and officially inaugurate on March 24th, 1999. The Cooperative's Nursery serves 26 children age (2 months- 3 years) which has been established for the benefit of the working women of the cooperative and women from the Kalandia Refugee Camp and the surrounding area, and those who wish to register in any training course.

Kalandia Camp Handicraft Cooperative is always working towards developing itself and expanding its existing activities and services and improving its working environment. So we are seeking donors to participate in improving and upgrading the equipment of the cooperative kindergarten, and financial sponsorship for poor and disadvantage children including disabled, whose families would not usually send them to kindergarten due to their economic situation. By covering their educational expenses for the calendar year.