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MCC first operated its facility in 2007 at Wadi Hilweh neighborhood in Silwan. Beginning in 2016, Madaa Creative Center (MCC) resolved to make its services more accessible by establishing branches in different parts of Silwan; new branches were established at Batten el Hawa and Ein el Loze neighborhoods; aiming at offering quality services to the residents of the most entrenched parts of Silwan – the parts that can only be reached by foot and lack open and enough spaces needed for gathering, social, recreational and collective activities in East Jerusalem neighborhoods.
As a center established by leaders from the community to make effective change, MCC managed to reach the different parts of Silwan's neighborhoods.
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Today, MCC works within 4 major programs and runs 5 branches, a playground (Wadi Hilweh Park), a kindergarten, a legal department, and a media department (Wadi Hilweh Information Center) to serve the needs of the community. Madaa’s branches offer 'safe spots' and ‘recreational spaces’ for children, youth and adults to spend meaningful time outside of their family homes and develop their skills and knowledge in socially, economically and politically challenging harsh conditions.
(MCC) continuously strives to develop its programs to meet the needs of the local community in Jerusalem whilst ensuring equal access to MCC's services for all ages, for males and females.
This implies the inclusion of women in the community through social and economic empowerment and providing the needed space for them.
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Therefore, by the end of 2011, MCC established a cultural cafe in Wadi Hilweh in Silwan that served as a gathering space for children, youth and women, and where women could display their handmade work for purchases by the public and visitors of the center, 4 months later into the year 2012, the Israeli municipality demolished the structure. Moreover, later that year a playground for children and other facilities in the same area were also demolished by the Nature and Parks Authority under the pretext of "removing trash".
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MCC continues its efforts to provide the needed space for women; during the year 2020 MCC rented a new space at Wadi Hilweh specifically for the use of women's cultural cafe activities.
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MCC made a remarkable progress in March 2020 by opening the first public library in Silwan, the Edward Said library, located at (Wadi Hilweh).
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Wadi Hilweh Park
In early 2010, Madaa Creative Center managed to transfer a (1,400) m2 abandoned land into the first public park in Silwan. The center used the playground as a space for children to conduct outdoor activities away from the dangerous streets in light of lack of recreational spaces for children in Silwan. The site is located on two main streets in Wadi Hilweh area. It has one access gate from each street. It is surrounded by a residential area and two schools, two community centers and a kindergarten.
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