MECI and Mufeeda

Celebrating the achievements of one of our most beloved and longest standing teachers.

In fall 2024, MECI said a bittersweet goodbye to Mufeeda Shoaibi, beloved educator of more than 17 years. The 64-year-old local from Deir Ghassaneh in the West Bank served many roles, from drama instructor to program assistant, with a devotion to her students that never changed.

“She wasn't really a regular teacher. She was something different,” Ayham, now 19, said of Mufeeda, who used to teach him. In grade school, Ayham said, all formalities fell away with Mufeeda. “She was like a mother to us.”

Now, with MECI’s help, Mufeeda is moving on to pursue her lifelong dream of starting a nursery. Along with decades of teaching experience, she’s taking with her the love and support of a community that will always consider her family. 

In 2007, Mufeeda joined MECI just after it launched in Beit Rima, the village next to hers. Proximity was critical, allowing her to work and make a salary without losing time at home with her family. For not only her four daughters but her husband who suffers from a chronic disability and her son who was shot in the leg earlier this year, she has been both provider and caretaker 

When she started at MECI, Mufeeda was a drama teacher. She led students in activities that allowed them to tell stories, perform them, and even write their own. “I started giving them opportunities to say what they feel and act and write about what they feel,” she said.

Soon, she was promoted to supervise the entire MECI program in one boys’ school. By 2022, she worked in the MECI office, supporting the administration of programs across all schools.

Whatever her role, Mufeeda’s priority was the students. “The greatest thing I’ve done in my career and at MECI was creating change in the children,” Mufeeda said. She watched shy ones, like Ayham, gain confidence and grow into scholars and leaders in their community.

“Even when I grew up, like now I’m in university, she was really helpful,” Ayham said of his continuing relationship with Mufeeda. “She was someone who really loved her job and really loves to help others.”

As Mufeeda plans to open her own nursery, she envisions having a similarly meaningful impact on new children and their families. “I hope I can help the community by giving children a safe place to go and letting their mothers leave their children with me and go to work and do whatever they need.”

Of course, Mufeeda’s new business is not the end of the road for her and MECI. “When I first worked for MECI, I felt like I’m working with family members, not just teachers and other colleagues,” she said. MECI will continue to support her, financially and otherwise, to help get the nursery off the ground.

“MECI,” Mufeeda summed up, “is like my second family.”

We always will be.