HIGHLIGHTS
As part of ongoing efforts to listen to the voices of young Palestine refugee students in Gaza and encourage creativity, the UNRWA Gaza Communications Office implemented a “story-writing workshop” with interested UNRWA students to encourage them to express themselves by using their imagination and to explore different ways of thinking and writing by adopting unusual and new perspectives. Do you want to read about the journey of a raindrop? Or about how chocolate houses melt or what the relation is between hope and a plastic leaf stuck to a tree? A selection of the students’ stories are now published in English and Arabic and can be read here.
On 17 August, UNRWA celebrated its final closing ceremony of the Gaza Summer Fun Weeks (SFWs) in Al Amal Preparatory Girls school in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza. As the main theme during SFWs in Khan Younis had been “discovering cultural roots”, the closing ceremony was organized as a “community tale festival”. The participating children set up a traditional Palestinian village inside the school, including traditional Palestinian food, dresses and the show-casing of traditional dances and customs, for the visitors that came to the site. The Director of UNRWA Operations in Gaza, Mr. Bo Schack, participated in this and many other SFWs events. The SFWs ran from 23 July to 11 August with the participation of over 165,000 refugee children in arts, drawing, sports and cultural activities. For the first time, each of the five areas focused on a special theme. In the northern area of the Gaza Strip, around Beit Hanoun and Jabalia, the focus was on mental health in children’s overall well-being, since this area was one of the most affected by the 2014 hostilities. Gaza city’s theme was Reduce, Reuse, Recycle to raise awareness about the value of natural resources. In the Middle Area, the spotlight was on democracy and child parliaments. Khan Younis explored traditional Palestinian food and dabkah and in Rafah, southern Gaza, children celebrated their summer fun activities in English.
UNRWA aims at ensuring the safety and security of Palestine refugee children in Gaza throughout its services. The issue of violence involving and affecting children in UNRWA installations will be one of the priorities for the forthcoming rollout of the UNRWA Child Protection Framework finalized in March 2016. To ensure a coherent way of addressing violence in all of its installations a working group, led by the Education Department and the Protection Division, and comprising representatives from other relevant programmes and departments, has been working since the beginning of 2016 on how to strengthen efforts towards addressing violence involving and affecting children in UNRWA installations. This is in line with the Agency’s policy of zero tolerance to violence. For a comprehensive action plan, consultations at field level are an integral part. The consultation exercise in Gaza started recently and involves 47 consultations with staff, parents as well as children in health centres, schools, distribution centres and Community-Based Rehabilitation Centres. The main focus area of the consultations are the scale and nature of violence in UNRWA installations, challenges, opportunities and actions to address violence in UNRWA installations as well as Communication for Development (C4D) methods against violence in UNRWA installations. Consultations will be completed by the end of September, leading to a report that includes recommendations on how to address the challenges identified.Adobe Systems
During the reporting week, the Deputy Director of UNRWA Operations in Gaza, Mr. David De Bold, together with other representatives from humanitarian organizations, briefed the US Senator Cory Booker on the humanitarian situation in Gaza. The UNRWA briefing focused on services like education, health, infrastructure and camp improvement, relief and social services provided by the Agency to refugees which comprise 70 per cent of the Gaza population. Additionally, UNRWA’s substantial efforts in reconstruction after the 2014 conflict, challenges associated with import and export restrictions, movement and access issues, as well as the socio-economic and humanitarian conditions in Gaza and the opportunities available to improve the situation through the continued support of the United States.
“One Humanity” was the theme of this year’s annual World Humanitarian Day (WHD), commemorated on 19 August. The day recognizes aid workers who risk their lives in humanitarian service, and mobilizes people to advocate for humanitarian action. “World Humanitarian Day is an annual reminder of the need to act to alleviate the suffering. It is also an occasion to honour the humanitarian workers and volunteers toiling on the frontlines of crises,” said UN Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon. UNRWA Goodwill Ambassador Mohammad Assaf – a Palestine refugee from Gaza – participated as a special guest at the WHD event in New York. In his speech, he urged attendees to support humanitarian organizations working with refugees and displaced peoples. During the summer 2014 conflict, 11 brave UNRWA personnel were killed. 26 August marks the two-year anniversary of the ceasefire following the 50 days of hostilities. While most of the rubble from the destroyed and damaged homes and infrastructure has been removed, Gaza is still devastated. Of the approximately 100,000 Palestinians who had their homes destroyed or severely damaged during the 2014 hostilities (18,000 homes), 65,000 remain displaced as of mid-2016 – approximately 70 per cent of them Palestine refugees. In addition, according to the Children’s Right and Emergency Relief Organization (UNICEF), more than 300,000 children in Gaza are still in need of psycho-social support to cope with their experiences.
The recent months saw a reduction of movement of goods and persons in and out of the Gaza Strip: from May to July 2016, 453 truckloads of goods exited Gaza – 30 per cent less than in quarter one of 2016, reports the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). This is the first time UNRWA observed a reduction in export trends since the start of relaxing measures by Israel in the aftermath of the devastating 2014 conflict, in November that year. In 2000, an average of 1,271 truckloads exited Gaza per month; in 2006, before the imposition of the blockade on land, air and sea, this number had decreased to 441 per month. OCHA also reports that in July the number of persons crossing Erez decreased significantly, with the biggest drop – 27 per cent – recorded among traders. As the Israeli organization Gisha reports Israel restrained the mobility of Gaza merchants withdrawing about 1,500 trader permits (about a third of the total), stifling the activity of Gaza businesses and damaging the overall economy. Further, in quarter two of 2016, female unemployment reached the highest rate ever recorded (65.3 per cent), following a 2.1 per cent rise from quarter one, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS).