In late November, the Program Officer of OTC AECID in Jerusalem, Jesus Tomé, and the Head of Humanitarian and Emergency Projects, Elisa Paz, along with the staff responsible for the FPSC projects in the Palestinian Territories paid a visit to various places and activities of the projects that the Foundation has currently in Gaza.
First, they visited the Deir el Balah Rehabilitation Society. This center will act as a reference center and logistics hub of three rehabilitation centers located in Jabalia, Nuseirat and Rafah, within the project “Emergency Aid to persons with disabilities in refugee camps in Gaza to ensure protection of their rights” that the FPSC, thanks to funding from the AECID, will launch shortly in the Gaza Strip.
There are distinctive feature of this center respect to the others. In addition to standard services in the field of rehabilitation of the disabled, the Deir Balaj Rehabilitation Society also offers a physiotherapy center and a training center where training courses are taught in the field of pastry and confectionery and whose products are subsequently sold on the local market. It also has a radio station that broadcast over the airwaves for the Gaza Strip and the Internet, combining a generalist formula with specific programs for the promotion of the rights of the disabled.
By developing this project a number of essential elements are provided for users of the four rehabilitation centers wheel-chairs, crutches, hearing aids, etc. as well as specialized training for staff, and a specific database will be created as part of the Palestinian national network, “The national Society for Rehabilitation”.
After this visit, the delegation traveled to the headquarters of the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC) in the Gaza Strip, where they met with Deputy Director General, Engineer Taysir Muheisen. PARC is a member of the FPSC in the agreement that funds the AECID “Improving water management in agriculture to ensure food security in the Palestinian Territories and Jordan.”
During the visit they visited several greenhouses restored / rebuilt in the Zeitun neighborhood due to damage suffered during the war recently occurred in the Gaza Strip.
Since the agricultural sector was particularly damaged in the war last summer, as the vast majority of agricultural land and pasture are located in border areas in the north and east of the Gaza Strip, for where tanks and armored Israeli army penetrated, the agreement provides for the construction of greenhouses and channeling water elsewhere in the Gaza Strip that were affected by the military offensive: the refugee camp of Deir el Balaj and localities Khan Younis and Rafah Al Qarara.
In addition, rehabilitation of fields and greenhouses is one of the main priorities framed within the “National Plan for Early Recovery and Reconstruction” which was presented by the ANP to the Donors Conference co-organized by Norway and Egypt held last October 12 in Cairo.