Department of Service for Palestinian Refugees–Gaza Update, February 1, 2009

by Global Ministries | published on Oct 10, 2014

Department of Service for Palestinian Refugees
Gaza Update, February 1, 2009

Colleague Constantine Dabbagh informs that the Clinic of Shija’ia starts operating today in new rented premises. There will be more needs coming in the next few weeks. It is worth mentioning that DSPR has started since last Thursday on January 29 with follow up on chidren of Shija’ia who benefitted from the malnutrition and iron deficiency program of the destroyed clinic.

Unloading of the DanChurchAid 50,000 water bottles of 1.5 litres each and their storage on premises of DSPR in Gaza has been accomplished. On the shipment of the additional 100,000 water bottles of DSPR, it was decided that from now on all shipments of supplies and needs for Gaza would be facilitated by our colleague in DSPR from the West Bank.

In the Vocational Training Program, a new addition would be to encourage trainees to paint, join in acting and staging plays and volunteering in social activities, at least for a period of time. These activities, as well as others, are intended to deal with the trauma suffered by our trainees and to enable them to make the transition back to learning easier.

In painting, our trainees were painting on special walls in water colors and as they did this they were talking about what they felt; another activity was the construction of an imaginary city by jigsaw puzzle; table tennis, video and computer games, chess and other activities were undertaken including the preparation of light meals facilitated by the Students Food Committee and by the Students Social Cultural Committee.

Among the paintings, one could see scenes from the just concluded war seen by the students themselves, including destroyed homes. Other students preferred to undertake games and to have time off. One student painted the map of Palestine to stress that Palestine is still here, all of it. Another student painted mosques because he felt that mosques were targetted in the war. He emphasized that his painting is also a call to all Palestinian political groups and factions to unite.

I am sure that all of us send a word of appreciation and thanks to the work done by the Staff of DSPR – NECC Gaza to restart the Clinic and their vocational training and other programs in such relatively short time. Hats off, Gaza, for wonderful efforts and Shukran.

Dr. Bernard Sabella
Executive Director
Department of Service to Palestinian Refugees
Middle East Council of Churches Central Office
Jerusalem