Education

School Renovations in Gaza

Welfare Association funds multiple projects in schools across the West Bank and Gaza; upgrading, repairing, and rebuilding schools that are dilapidated and have run down infrastructure, or schools that have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli forces.

The needs are great in Palestine and repairing these schools allows children to return to their classrooms and to continue their education in a safe and appropriate learning environment.

Schools in Gaza are often hit during Israeli military strikes, with varying degrees of damage and destruction. It is estimated that in the May 2021 hostilities alone, 600,000 children had their education disrupted due to the conflict, with a number of schools suffering varying degrees of damage and/or destruction. In these conditions, with schools unsafe for use, their students are directed to other local schools that remain functional. The operational schools then host two sets of teachers and students across two shifts; with one school using the building in the morning and one using it in the afternoon, to try to avoid gaps in the children’s education. These conditions are not suitable for teachers or pupils, inflated class sizes have to be held in cramped rooms outside of the usual school hours, while teaching resources are frequently unavailable due to the sudden doubling of students.

In this project, the WA project team met with local stakeholders to review high priority schools in need of urgent repair. Two schools were identified to be rehabilitated within the project, Suad Al-Sabah Secondary School, and Lulwa Abdul Wahab Al Qatami Primary School. The project was completed in early 2022.

Two additional schools, that were hosting the students from the two schools rehabilitated in this project, also benefitted. Once the two damaged schools were restored and students were able to return the host schools returned to normality, with regular school hours and space to learn restored.

Rehabilitation works included: clearing rubble & debris, concrete and building work, steel and aluminium work, roofing, electrical repairs, water and sewage network renewal, plastering, tiling, as well as well as works to outside areas. All the work at both schools was successfully completed, enabling 1,972 students to happily return to their schools and continue their education in a safe environment suitable for teaching and learning.