On Sunday, 30th of June 2019. the press House-Palestine held an open dialogue meeting with the Director of UNRWA Operations Mathias Shamali, which was attended by a number of journalists, writers and a number of international and local media representatives in the Gaza Strip.
At the beginning of the encounter, the Chairman of the Press House Bilal Jadallah welcomed the attendance, stressing the importance of conducting such meetings that serve the Palestinian journalists and put them in the form of the situation through the encounter with the official directly.
Mathias Shamali spoke about the overall circumstances, conditions and challenges facing UNRWA's work. Saying that UNRWA was facing a less difficult year than the past year, noting that it paid its employees’ salaries of the first six months of 2019 without problems.
Shamali explained that the success of the recent Donors Conference in New York would enable UNRWA to open the new school year on time, warning that schools could be closed again after a month because of inadequate funding.
He pointed to the visits and meetings that UNRWA is still conducting to mobilize funding, noting that " The basic emergency budget for this year is 1.2 Billion Dollars for the five regions, besides the availability of other funds of only 600 Billion Dollars.
He also referred that UNRWA needs 60 Million Dollars; to continue to provide food assistance to poor families in Gaza, without interruption until the end of this year.
Where he pointed out that UNRWA received 20 Million Dollars for Qatar’s the food program and 13 Million Dollars from Qatar for the job creation program, revealing that UNRWA may receive additional funds from Qatar for this program.
He also confirmed that UNRWA had not received any other funds to cover such services as rent subsidies paid to families and had been suspended since last year due to lack of funding.
Shamali stressed that: "The economic and social situation in Gaza, continues to change to the worst; due to the passing of 12 years of the blockade."
He touched upon the reconciliation, saying: "This issue did not move forward, and of course there will be better opportunities if the internal Palestinian reconciliation has been made."
He also expressed his deep concern about the "The corrosion and the social problems in Gaza", pointing out that the UNRWA Health Centers are reporting the increasing cases of depression, suicide, psychological cases and drug abuse.
The floor then was opened for discussion and questions to the attended journalists and writers to learn more about the issues and topics that concern them and the nature and challenges of UNRWA in the coming period, where Mr. Shamali has answered all their questions and queries.
