CATCHING UP WITH THE STUDIES AFTER THE WAR


During the war in 2008-2009 (Operation Cast Lead), 164 students and 12 teachers were killed, and 158 schools were bombed. But the war also left deep scars on the mental health of the students and led to a severe decrease of their level of education. This concerned particularly high school students. Sharek Youth Forum played a major role in implementing a project to provide education at times of emergency and crisis, including remedial sessions for secondary school students, through the Catch Up project. 1500 students have been targeted in secondary schools, about 4500 at Tawjihi level, among them also a centre for blind students. The project especially focused on the poor areas, because poor families cannot afford remedial sessions. Young teachers were chosen and specially trained, so they were able to build relations of friendships with the students in order to be able to address their social and psychological needs. Overall, the students were able to achieve good results and get benefits fromthe project, in spite of having no electricity and the siege being still imposed on Gaza. Furthermore, the project succeeded in providing an appropriate atmosphere for the students, so they could improve their level of education, and managed to urge them to complete their education and enter university. Catch Up is funded by UNESCO.


Ola Mghrary, 29, project coordinator: I consider our work with the Alumni Association for Blind Students as one of the project’s most important success stories. We worked with them since the beginning of the project. It was an enriching experience to see young disabled students participate in a program for secondary students in governmental schools, and not only in private schools for disabled. Some of the teachers running the activities had also disabilities. In this way we mixed the disabled students with the rest of the students, which had a positive effects on the students, as well as on the administration. We feel that now it is possible to communicate better with organizations for disabled people and provide programs that help to integrate them in the society and help them to be able to lead a relatively normal life.


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