HIGHLIGHTS
To increase the capacity of Gaza refugee youth to design and implement their own projects, the Social Services Division of the UNRWA Relief and Social Services Programme (RSSP) is implementing a fundraising and proposal writing training from 31 July to 18 August for 12 female and 8 male youth in Gaza city. The participants were selected through partnering Community-Based Organizations (CBOs), Community-Based Rehabilitation Centres (CBRCs) as well as Women Programme Centres (WPCs) across the Gaza Strip. The training includes a variety of subjects related to project management, such as budget calculations, evaluation, and communications with donors. RSSP aims to empower Palestine refugees, focusing on the most vulnerable groups, by meeting their social and economic needs through community social interventions. It conducts activities through 14 CBOs, seven Women’s Programme Centres (WPC) and seven Community-Based Rehabilitation Centres (CBRC) for persons with disabilities. Its Social Services Division contains five programmes which are: the Youth Programme, Elderly Programme, Orphan Programme, Women Programme and the Disability Programme.23 - UNRWA TV is currently producing 24 new multimedia episodes for its Education in Emergencies project, focusing on the core subjects of Arabic, English, Science and Mathematics. The episodes will be broadcast in September at the beginning of the scholastic year 2016-2017. The content is relevant for all Palestine refugee children in all five fields of UNRWA operations, irrespective of their national curricula. The educational elements are based on a modern TV format including classrooms, science experiments, documentaries, songs, music clips, drama, and animation; overall, the production is based on a “children are teaching children” approach, which aligns with Communication for Development (C4D) methods. UNRWA TV provides high quality self-learning supplements for students, teachers and families in emergencies who have limited or disrupted access to formal education. This ensures that refugee children can access education even in areas of instability and in post-conflict settings, restoring routine and giving children hope for the future. In Gaza, recurrent hostilities and the ongoing blockade continue to impact the learning environment for Palestine refugee children, and frequently disrupt access to formal education for the enclave’s child population, including over 263,000 students at UNRWA schools. In the West Bank, Palestinian students’ access to education is affected by movement restrictions including the separation barrier and checkpoints, attacks on schools, and settler violence. In addition, the UN estimates that over 5.4 million chil dren have been displaced within and outside of Syria. Although Palestine refugee children from Syria are able to enrol in UNRWA schools in Jordan and Lebanon, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that 80 per cent of Syrian refugee children in Lebanon, and 56 per cent of Syrian refugee children in Jordan, are not enrolled in school.
Besides the regular sports and arts activities, during this year’s Summer Fun Weeks (SFWs) each area of Gaza implements special activities under a specific theme. Gaza city’s theme is Reduce, Reuse, Recycle to raise awareness on the value of natural resources. For this purpose, the Agency conducts arts workshops based on the usage of recycling material. Prior to the SFWs, the SFW team collected waste material such as plastic bottles, tires, ropes or sponges, available at the UNRWA warehouses in Karni Industrial Zone, which can be multi-purposed and used to create handicrafts. UNRWA also cooperates with the Belgian artist Michele Vanvlasselaer who is teaching the children how to produce beautiful art pieces by combining and playing with glass, plastic and sunlight. The aim of these classes is to stimulate the children’s creativity and raise awareness on how material that is usually thrown away can be re-used and re-cycled. The most creative and special pieces created during these recycling workshops will be transported to Brussels where they will be exhibited together with similar pieces produced by Belgian children who will participate in the same arts workshops with the Belgian artist. In addition to recreational activities for over 165,000 refugee children, the SFWs also help to revive the local Gaza economy, devastated by over nine years of blockade and repeated cycles of armed conflict. Through the SFWs, UNRWA has created a total of 2,267 short term job opportunities for mostly young unemployed Palestine refugees through the Agency’s Job Creation Programme (JCP). In addition, all materials used for the activities are purchased from the local market, including over 850,000 bottles of juice and the same number of snacks for the participating children. Repair of some of the SFWs equipment has also been completed by local businesses.
The UNRWA Health Programme, in cooperation with Al Azhar University, organized a graduation ceremony for the graduates of the Family Medicine Diploma Programme on 2 August at Al Azhar university. The one-year long diploma programme aimed at enhancing the practical and clinical skills of UNRWA medical officers to increase the quality of UNRWA primary health care services for Palestine refugees in Gaza. A total of 15 UNRWA medical officers completed the course and received their certificates during the ceremony which was also attended by the Director of UNRWA Operations in Gaza, Mr. Bo Schack, and other senior UNRWA staff. The Family Medicine Diploma Programme was launched in July 2015 and consisted of online lectures, workshops, and practical sessions in UNRWA Health Centres under the supervision of four tutors from Al Azhar university. The programme was part of the UNRWA health reform and the related family health team approach. Traditionally, patients have been attended by different doctors for different problems, and even specific problems were not always treated by the same doctor. In contrast, through the health reform, the family health teams are responsible for the health services of families.
The international organization Physicians for Human Rights has issued a report titled ‘Amputees’ that addresses the conditions of persons in Gaza who were left with amputated limbs following the 2014 conflict. During the 2014 hostilities, over 2,200 persons were killed and over 11,000 injured in Gaza; approximately 1,100 injured children will have to live with life-long disabilities. According to the report, the extensive violence during the 50 days of hostilities in summer 2014 also produced approximately 100 new amputees - the majority of them under thirty years old - among the Gaza population who do not only have to deal with the traumatic amputation itself, but also with a difficult recovery process in a place under blockade since over nine years and the related crippled health sector, poor public infrastructure, ruined streets and non-powered elevators due to lack of electricity. Bureaucratic difficulties and restrictions when seeking treatment outside of Gaza as well as the psycho-social impact of losing a limb, and the diminished social status, all make it extremely difficult for amputees to cope with their injuries. Further, in a place with one of the highest unemployment rates in the world, these persons face even more difficulties to make a living and cope with the financial burdens related to their treatment. According to the report, approximately 2.4 per cent of the people of Gaza – or 42,240 persons – live with some form of disability, almost 50 per cent of them with movement restrictions. To show the faces and stories behind these numbers, PHR published the report alongside the blog #GazaAmputees.