R E F U G E E S

Nuseirat Refugee Camp

A crowded and busy camp, Nuseirat is now home to more than 62,117 Refugees who fled the southern districts of Palestine such as Beersheva and the southern coast after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. The refugees, 16,000 at the time, settled in a former British military prison and in tents nearby. The camp took its name from a Bedouin tribe from the area and is located in the centre of the Gaza Strip west of the Saladin highway running from Cairo to the north of Palestine.

Population:

  • 83,275 people live in the camp (31 December 2008). 62,117 are in the camp and 21,158 are living outside the camp.

  • The camp houses 7.76 per cent of Gaza’s total refugee population.

UNRWA Education Programme:

  • UNRWA operates 17 schools in the camp, 10 elementary and 7 preparatory, in nine school buildings in the camp, 8 of the 17 schools are run on double shift basis.

  • Enrollment in the current academic year totals 18071.

  • The total number of class sections is 481, 315 classes in the elementary

  • schools and 166 classes in the preparatory schools.

  • The total number of teachers is 631, 380 female teachers and 251 male.

UNRWA Health Programme:

  • The Agency's health centre was built in 1963, and was reconstructed through a special fund from the Catalonia Government in 2006. The new building was put into operation in November 2006

  • The Agency's health centre in the camp is staffed by 68 health care workers assigned to a morning and afternoon shifts.

  • It provides outpatient, dental, maternal-child health, physiotherapy and family planning clinics as well as a laboratory and pharmacy.

  • In 2008, on average of 30,237 consultations were held there each month.

Relief and Social Services:

  • A total of 2619 families (12446 people) residing in the camp are eligible for relief assistance under the Agency’s Social Safety Net (SSN) Programme.

  • 1116 families are classified as abjectly poor and receive Family Income Supplements. 8716 people are classified as abjectly poor.

  • There is one distribution centre in the camp.

  • 481 are due to be repaired under the SSN. 321 are in the camp and 160 are out the camp.

  • 434 SSNP shelters need to be repaired, 224 are in the camp and 210 are out the camp.

  • Within its social services programme, UNRWA is sponsoring one Women’s Program Centre in the camp

Microfinance and Microenterprise:

  • Through its Small-Scale Enterprise Credit Product, UNRWA has extended loans with a combined value of US$ 248,500.00 to 28 borrowers residing in the camp. Among the borrowers are sewing, contractors, a sign painter, a hairdresser, the owners of automotive repair and carpentry workshops, a bakery sweet, services and a nursery school, as well as the producers of confectionery, bricks and furniture.

  • Through its Solidarity Group Lending Product, which makes credit available to women using a group-guarantee mechanism, the Agency has made 2,274 loans to women from Nuseirat totaling US$ 1,356,128.00

  • Through its Micro-enterprise Product, loans totaling US$ 1,794,602 to the owners of 2,299 micro-enterprises.

  • Through its Consumer- Lending Product the Agency has issued 258 loans valued at US$ 219,800.00

  • Though its Housing Loan product the Microfinance Department has issued 49 loans valued at US$ 323,400.00.

UNRWA Environmental Health:

The Sanitation Office is staffed by 48 employees and takes care of daily collection of refuse, cleaning of roads and alleys, transporting the refuse from the camp to municipal land fill sites and rodents and insects control. They also monitor water supply through chemical and bacteriological testing, and operate petrol water pumps to pump storm water from flooded areas during the rainy season.

UNRWA utilised funds received through the emergency appeal to pave roads and alleys inside the camp under the Job Creation Program. But raw sewage flows through channels along roads and paths, as well as through agricultural lands toward Wadi Gaza, or to pools along an old railroad right-of-way, and poses a serious risk to the health of the camp’s residents.

UNRWA Engineering & Construction Services Department:

There are four maintenance offices in the camp that offer maintenance works to all UNRWA installations.