Dubai Cares launches Rebuild Palestine: Start with Education initiative

Dubai (WAM): Dubai Cares announced yesterday the "Rebuild Palestine: Start with Education" initiative, part of which includes a programme aimed at supporting access to education and mitigating the psycho-social effects of armed conflict on the student population in Gaza, Palestine. The Dh11 million (US$3 million) programme has been launched to alleviate the devastating effects of this summer’s seven-week military conflict on the education sector in Gaza by providing infrastructure and psycho-social support services to children. Tariq Al Gurg, Chief Executive Officer, Dubai Cares, said, "We need to wake-up to the situation in Gaza and prepare for the long-term impact of the current uncertain and volatile situation on its children. Palestine’s youngest citizens have suffered severe physical and psychological trauma over the course of the military conflict and the large-scale destruction of the educational infrastructure is going to further impair their futures. The time has come for the international community to mobilise resources, and ensure that schools have the capacity and the right capabilities to offer them quality education, and that is why we have launched ‘Rebuild Palestine: Start with Education’." Al Gurg continued, "Through this programme, which concentrates on bolstering the educational infrastructure while supporting the psycho-social rehabilitation of the children, we aim to ensure that the children in Gaza have access to quality education. This means building up sound infrastructure and developing the relevant curricula as well as investing in teachers so that they can assist students dealing with trauma to develop coping mechanisms, thus successfully settling them back into their educational routines." The continuous blockade that accompanied the conflict crippled Gaza’s struggling educational sector. The Dubai Cares programme, in partnership with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), will work towards countering the effects of the conflict and strengthening the educational sector in Gaza. As part of the programme, 175,809 children enrolled in 151 UNRWA schools will receive weekly arts and sports classes led by specialised teachers. These classes will be structured around psycho-social counselling utilising arts and sports, and will also include training to guide teachers during these classes. In addition, 1,620 students in UNRWA schools will receive psycho-social support to develop their coping mechanisms and ease their distress. Individual support plans will be developed between the child and a counsellor to identify specific issues and vulnerabilities and then formulate a response and allocate resources. The programme will also provide 1,500 students access to primary and lower secondary education through the construction of a 20-classroom school which includes furniture and water and sanitation facilities. – Emirates News Agency, WAM – http://www.wam.ae/en/news/emirates/1395271485377.html