Qatar
QRC’s Gaza project to benefit children with special needs
QRC’s Gaza project to benefit children with special needs
Children with special needs will benefit from Qatar Red Crescent (QRC)’s environment adaptation at home and schools for children with disability project for 47 schools and 26 homes in different parts of the Gaza Strip, a QRC statement said yesterday. |
The QRC project that began in early April is within its mission of advocacy and social integration of people with special needs.
The $250,000 budget of the project is provided by Al Fakhoura campaign and the GCC’s programme for the reconstruction of Gaza, through the project’s co-ordinator, the Islamic Development Bank.
“For four years now, I have been suffering difficulty moving inside our home, which has no windows to protect my family and me from the cold winter,” Haythem Toulan, 17, a student with disability, described his everyday suffering in movement and communication, both at home and outside.
The teenager hoped that urgent assistance from QRC would improve his life at home, so that he could share time normally with his family and find the psychological comfort that he needs before taking the secondary school exams two months later.
Saleh bin Ali al-Mohannadi, secretary general, QRC, said that the project would help students with motor impairments to socialise and reduce their exposure to risks due to immobility, together with the severe economic conditions of their families.
Dr Akram Nassar, head of QRC’s office in Gaza, clarified that the organisation co-ordinated with competent authorities, including the ministries of education and social affairs, to survey needs and then began the repair of homes, building personal rooms furnished with disability-friendly wardrobes, desks, and beds.
The project, he added, involved adapting school environments to become disability-adjusted, with corridors, entrances, bathrooms, and classrooms designed specifically to facilitate use by impaired students.
There would also be a resource room for special education, equipped with computers, smart monitors, and display devices to enhance their interactivity and engagement in curricular as well as extracurricular activities.
This intervention is part of an umbrella $5mn programme implemented by QRC in Gaza, in co-operation with the Palestine Red Cross, with support from Qatar’s Al Fakhoura and the GCC Gaza reconstruction programme.