UAE to donate Dh55m to support education in Gaza

ABU DHABI // The UAE is to donate Dh55 million to support education in the Gaza Strip.

The aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East will pay the salaries of 820 teachers and education staff and cover the operating costs of 20 schools for the 2016-2017 academic year.

The money will also be used to develop school curriculums and education skills and provide learning materials, including stationery, schoolbags and other items.

The grant will relieve the students and their parents of an additional financial burden with the beginning of each academic year, especially since many families in the Gaza Strip suffer from extreme poverty, reported state news agency Wam.

Reem bint Ebrahim Al Hashemy, UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation, said: “The UAE is committed to providing support and assistance to Palestinian refugees to prepare young people for future. And we will continue to work with our partners in the UNRWA to provide the necessary support and protection of the right to education for children and young people.”

She said the UNRWA was an important partner in these aims.

“We look forward to enhancing our joint efforts to support the urgent humanitarian issues,” she said.

Since 2011, the UAE has donated more than Dh1.6 billion to help Palestinians.

Pierre Krahenbuhl, commissioner general of the UNRWA, thanked the UAE for its support in the region, in particular with regard to the issue of refugees.

The great support the UAE has been providing to Syria and Gaza made a big difference in the refugees’ lives and eased their suffering, he added.

He noted that the UAE is the third-largest donor of emergency appeal for Syria, and has long been the biggest interested and supportive of the education programme, which constitutes the bulk of UNRWA programmes, and the main axis that preserves the identity of the Palestinian refugees.

The UNRWA operates 267 school in Gaza that provide education services to approximately 263,000 children of Palestinian refugees taught by nearly 8,700 teachers, mostly refugees themselves.