The head of the High Committee for the Protection of Persons with Disabilities in the Gaza Strip camps, Khaled Abu Shuaib, announced the launching of the humanitarian mobility to protect the hope of persons with from closure.
This came during a meeting of the Higher Committee for the Protection of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the Gaza Strip Camps, which occurred on Thursday, entitled "Protecting the hope of Persons with Disabilities" at the headquarters of the Press House in Gaza City, to protect the hope of persons with disabilities from closure.
Mr.Shuaib explained that norms, international covenants, religious law and human rights conventions guarantee the right of persons with disabilities to education, rehabilitation and employment, noting that UNRWA has suspended a large part of its support to the centers since the beginning of 2018.
Mr. Shuaib appealed to the Commissioner-General of UNRWA to handle urgent intervention to save the humanitarian service centers, wondering about the fate of persons with disabilities if the services of these centers were suspended.
He also called for concerted efforts to preserve this segment, especially with the increasing number pf disabled, wounded people by the occupation, under the absence of the institutions support for this segment.
For its part, the spokesperson of the service providers, Amani al-Hisi, pointed to the negative effect of the 8 centers by the UNRWA financial crisis, indicating that the crisis has left many problems in the centers, including the failure to provide fuel service for generators, which lead to the disruption of services in the centers, in addition to depriving school children with disabilities of school supplies and therapy sessions.
Al- Hisi noted that the crisis affected on the lack of services on the reinforcement and rehabilitation sections, in addition to the reduction of courses and workshops for the provision of psychological and social support for persons with disabilities, not to mention the cutbacks in employment in the centers.
She also warned of the aggravation of the situation of persons with disabilities on the humanitarian level, as a result of the siege and social and economic deterioration in light of the high incidence of poverty and unemployment, noting that the conditions of service centers have not improved since the start of work 28 years ago.
Osama Abu Safar, in his closing statement, called on UNRWA to be committed to providing services to people with disabilities. He also demanded the Arab and international community to increase their contributions to compensate for the shortage of services for people with disabilities.
He also called on human rights organizations to support persons with disabilities, pointing out the need to exclude them from political inducements, especially as the occupation continuous aggression on the Gaza Strip causes an increasing percentage of disabled people.
Abu Safar concludes that they have taken escalatory steps in response to UNRWA's deferral of its responsibilities towards persons with disabilities and their service provider centers, namely through the continuous suspension of all services at the centers two days a week from 10 am to 12 noon, and organizing a protest outside UNRWA headquarters in Gaza on Thursday, 11th of April, for 4 hours from 10 am to 2 pm.
