(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) A community campaign by Dubai Cares is inviting people to volunteer for packaging school kits for the children of Gaza.
As part of its "Rebuild Palestine. Start with Education" initiative, Dubai Cares hopes to supply the children of Gaza with the school necessities required to continue their education.
"Together, we will assemble 50,000 school kits for the children of Gaza and show communities around the world how our relentless efforts as well as our spirit of giving can make a huge difference in the lives of those innocent children," said Tariq Al Gurg, Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Cares.
The campaign is expected to attract thousands of volunteers over a period of four days where volunteers will assist Dubai Cares in assembling back-to-school kits with basic educational supplies required for school.
The contents of the kit, sourced by Dubai Cares, will include a backpack, notebooks, sketch books, a geometry kit, a calculator, a pencil case for stationery including pens, pencils, erasers, sharpeners, crayons, rulers etc. The kits will be given to 50,000 children currently studying in United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) schools.
The latest round of violence in Palestine was marked by a significant amount of infrastructural damage, with over 138 schools bombed or damaged over the course of the seven-week conflict, including 89 run by UNRWA.
The school kits aim to instil hope among the children of Gaza with the start of the second half of the academic year as well as the New Year.
Over 90 UNRWA schools have been transformed into shelters for internally displaced people, more than half of whom are children. Since the open-ended ceasefire at the end of August, the school year has resumed but over 253,000 UNRWA students require urgent psycho-social support.
"When a region as Gaza is tarnished by violence, the priority is to ensure survival and protection. Unfortunately, the children of Gaza have consistently been the innocent victims of this dispute with their present and futures compromised due to the lack of security," added Al Gurg.
The latest campaign follows the Dubai Cares Dh11-million (US$3-million) programme, which was launched in October 2013 to support access to education and mitigate the psychosocial effects of armed conflict on the student population in Gaza.
"Children, as well as adults, have suffered material losses as well as physical and psychological trauma that is now manifesting in a sluggish economy as well as volatility within communities. We need to address this situation and provide educational support to children, so that they have a chance to overcome this debilitating environment and plant the seeds for a more peaceful and productive future. By distributing these kits, we are not only encouraging children to go back to school but also emphasising that the global community is investing in their growth and success," Al Gurg noted.
This is not the first Dubai Cares campaign aimed at facilitating the lives of children living in Gaza. In 2009, the organisation conducted a similar community engagement campaign that provided 50,000 school kits and 50,000 hygiene kits to the children of Gaza,
The community event will take place from January 8 to 11, from 10am to 6pm, at Al Boom Tourist Village, located between Dubai Creek Park and Al Garhoud Bridge.
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