Gaza students receive boost to support their commitment to education
GAZA CITY, 08 February 2005 -- About 10,000 children in impoverished areas in the Gaza Strip today received a boost in
the form of educational supplies to support their commitment to education.
“There are many children in schools affected by the conflict or in marginalized areas where basic educational supplies
are really needed,” says the UNICEF Special Representative in occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), Dan Rohrmann. “The
children are very committed to pursuing education and we would like to ensure that the commitment is supported through
the provision of these basic materials.”
Included in the School-in-a-Box kits are exercise books, pencils, erasers, plastic cubes for counting and other
materials needed by Grades One to Four to boost efforts to ensure educational activities continue in an innovative
manner. It also consists of a set of teaching aids that help teachers carry out hands on training, making teaching more
pedagogical and participatory.
The distribution today also included supplies for some 800 children given through the psychosocial emergency team in
Khan Younis, an area seriously affected by the crisis most recently. In addition, educational supplies were given for
some 10,000 children to the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MOEHE) for use in emergency responses throughout
Gaza.
UNICEF’s emergency action receives support from many donors - Arab Gulf Fund (Agfund), Austria, Belgium, Canada,
European Commission Humanitarian Office (ECHO), Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the
United States. Additionally, a Tunisian non-governmental organization ‘Children First’ and several UNICEF National
Committees - including the French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and United Kingdom. UNICEF’s emergency actions in
oPt would not take place at this scale if it were not for their voluntary support.
UNICEF – the world’s most influential advocate for children - has been working to improve the situation of children and
women in oPt since the early 1980s. Go to: www.unicef.org/oPt.