HEALTHY BODIES, HEALTHY MINDS
23 May 2015
Gaza
Almost 1,000 UNRWA schoolboys from 35 elementary schools participated in the annual UNRWA sport festival held in the Gaza Middle Area, displaying their talent and skills in sports such as karate, basketball and gymnastics. The schoolboys’ festival is one component of a larger project that targets both girls and boys.
“This is a sport gathering that includes all sports teams at UNRWA schools in an attempt to draw a smile on the faces of our students at UNRWA elementary schools and to help them heal after the recent conflict,” said festival supervisor Tayseer Abdel Jawwad during his opening speech. The event was attended by UNRWA education staff, school principals, community notables and the participating sports teams.
The annual sports festival forms part of UNRWA efforts to mitigate the psychosocial effects of armed conflict on the Palestine refugee student population and is generously funded by the Emirates-based Dubai Cares charity organization under their ‘Supporting access to education and mitigating psychosocial effects of armed conflict on the Palestine refugee student population’ project, worth US$ 3 million.
In the past seven years, the average UNRWA primary school student has lived through three cycles of military conflict, witnessing displacement, destruction and death; most have never left the Gaza Strip, except maybe for medical purposes. The Dubai Cares project began in January 2015 and includes the recruitment of 364 female and male sports and arts teachers through the UNRWA Job Creation Programme. These teachers work in 190 UNRWA schools and aim to develop children’s positive coping mechanism through sports, arts and psychosocial support. Over 175,000 male and female students receive weekly arts and sports classes structured around themes and concepts that reinforce psychosocial counselling efforts. The project runs until November 2016.
“Sport is about morals and respect for others. It is all about good things,” said 11-year-old Mua’ath Abu El Kas from Bureij Elementary ‘A’ school. His Karate tutor Mohamed Al Ashqar agreed: “This project gives the students a chance to release the stress many of them feel since last summer’s conflict. In my karate training, I focus primarily on the strengthening of their characters, to learn to be calm, open and tolerant with others.”
According to the tutors and counsellors, the weekly sports exercises have already had a positive impact on the children’s performance in school and their social behaviour. “We use sport to build not only healthy bodies, but also healthy minds, no matter what the challenges are,” concluded UNRWA Education Programme Deputy Chief Fadel Al Saloul.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
UNRWA is a United Nations agency established by the General Assembly in 1949 and is mandated to provide assistance and protection to a population of some 5 million registered Palestine refugees. Its mission is to help Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank and the Gaza Strip to achieve their full potential in human development, pending a just solution to their plight. UNRWA’s services encompass education, health care, relief and social services, camp infrastructure and improvement, and microfinance.
Financial support to UNRWA has not kept pace with an increased demand for services caused by growing numbers of registered refugees, expanding need, and deepening poverty. As a result, the Agency's General Fund (GF), supporting UNRWA’s core activities and 97 per cent reliant on voluntary contributions, has begun each year with a large projected deficit. Currently the deficit stands at more than US$ 106 million.
For more information, please contact:
Christopher Gunness
Spokesperson, Director of Advocacy & Strategic Communications
Mobile:
+972 (0)54 240 2659
Office:
+972 (0)2 589 0267
Sami Mshasha
Chief of Communications & Arabic Language Spokesperson
Mobile:
+972 (0)54 216 8295
Office:
+972 (0)2 589 0724
Milina Shahin
Public Information Officer – Gaza Field Office
Mobile:
+972 599 609 485
Office:
+972 8 2887213
Document Sources: United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)
Subject: Children, Education and culture, Gaza Strip, Health
Publication Date: 23/05/2015