The Lajee Center was established in Bethlehem, Palestine, in 2000 to serve members of the Aida Refugee Camp, developed in 1950 by the United Nations Relief and Works Company for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
Over 7,000 Palestinians presently live in the Aida Refugee Camp, which measures less than half a square mile. Water, food, and structure products are scarce, and overcrowding and unemployment persists.
Lajee is the Arabic word for refugee. The Lajee Center’s objective is offering West Bank youth and women with cultural, academic, social, and developmental chances, its mission declaration affirms.
Cambridge, Massachusetts– based Neighbor Architects completed a play area for a kindergarten inside Aida run by the Lajee Center in collaboration with 1for3, a Boston-based not-for-profit founded in 2011 that promotes Palestinian health, education, water, and food sovereignty. The playground won an honorable mention in the AN 2025 Best of Design Awards, in the social impact category.
The 3,000-square-foot play ground was built to support the Zahrat Al-Yasmeen Kindergarten, a school Lajee Center opened in 2021 that was created in part by Hubert Murray, another Cambridge designer; and Katie Flynn of Hisel Flynn Architects. It’s for kids of the Aida Refugee Camp along with the Azza (or Beit Jibrin) Refugee Camp.
Concrete was the primary structure material.(Shiraz Omar) Today, the play ground is delighted in by about 80 youngsters, their teachers, and the neighborhood more broadly. It is sandwiched in between two structures the Lajee Center runs to the north and south. A gate opens to a nearby soccer field.