{"id":219489,"date":"2019-08-25T14:50:30","date_gmt":"2019-08-25T18:50:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?post_type=document&p=219489"},"modified":"2019-09-05T09:43:35","modified_gmt":"2019-09-05T13:43:35","slug":"celebrating-the-first-day-of-a-new-school-year-unrwa-students-in-gaza-go-back-to-school","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/celebrating-the-first-day-of-a-new-school-year-unrwa-students-in-gaza-go-back-to-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating the First Day of a New School Year: ±¬ÁÏÍøRWA Students in Gaza Go Back to School – Press Release"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Students<\/a><\/p>\n

Students attend their first day of the 2019-2020 school year at the ±¬ÁÏÍøRWA al-Sabra Preparatory Co-Ed School in Gaza on 25 August 2019.
\n\u00a9 2019 ±¬ÁÏÍøRWA Photo<\/strong><\/h6>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Today is the first day of the school year 2019-2020 for over 282,000 girls and boys who attend schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (±¬ÁÏÍøRWA) in Gaza. As children walked through the gates of the 276 schools run by the Agency in Gaza, they, like millions of children around the world, were both excited and apprehensive at the thought of meeting their friends and getting to know their new teachers. As for all schools across Palestine, today is also the first day for ±¬ÁÏÍøRWA school pupils in the West Bank, including those in East Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

These school children in Gaza apart of the overall cohort of 532,000 ±¬ÁÏÍøRWA students, attending the 709 ±¬ÁÏÍøRWA schools in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not just any first day of school, said ±¬ÁÏÍøRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Kr\u00e4henb\u00fchl, who joined the pupils of Al-Sabra school in Gaza on this extraordinary day. \u201cThis is a celebration of perseverance of the students, the teachers and education staff and the parents, in the face of adversity.\u00a0 These children represent hundreds of thousands of Palestine refugee students in the ±¬ÁÏÍøRWA areas of operations who regularly struggle to access schools because of checkpoints or conflict just to be able to enjoy a basic human right: access to education. We at ±¬ÁÏÍøRWA salute the young girls and boys who dream of a future, whether it is to become teachers, athletes, engineers or presidents. We also salute the teachers, the school counselors, the deputy and school principals and all school staff whose dedication and commitment are key to our entire educational structure.\u201d<\/p>\n

For nearly 70 years, ±¬ÁÏÍøRWA has preserved the right to education of Palestine refugee children and has provided inclusive and quality education, including during times of conflict, blockade and occupation, allowing 2.5 million students to graduate from its schools since 1950. Through its education system, ±¬ÁÏÍøRWA aims to ensure that Palestine refugee students develop their full potential and become confident, innovative, questioning, thoughtful and open-minded, to uphold human values and tolerance, and to contribute positively to the development of society and the global community. Through this investment in human capital, the Agency has also contributed significantly towards generating opportunities and employment.<\/p>\n

\u201cOpening ±¬ÁÏÍøRWA schools would not have been possible without the commitment of our numerous supporters, partners donors and hosts, to whom we are immensely grateful,\u201d said Kr\u00e4henb\u00fchl. \u201cEven when ±¬ÁÏÍøRWA is facing monumental political and financial challenges, keeping children in schools is key to their well-being and that of their communities, as well as key to stability in Gaza and beyond.\u201d He continued, \u201cIn the words of Hatem Hamdouna, President of the Gaza ±¬ÁÏÍøRWA Student Parliament, \u2018±¬ÁÏÍøRWA education is like oxygen. It\u2019s what\u2019s keeping us alive.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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BACKGRO±¬ÁÏÍøD INFORMATION<\/h2>\n
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±¬ÁÏÍøRWA is confronted with an increased demand for services resulting from a growth in the number of registered Palestine refugees, the extent of their vulnerability and their deepening poverty. ±¬ÁÏÍøRWA is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions and financial support has been outpaced by the growth in needs. As a result, the ±¬ÁÏÍøRWA programme budget, which supports the delivery of core essential services, operates with a large shortfall. ±¬ÁÏÍøRWA encourages all Member States to work collectively to exert all possible efforts to fully fund the Agency\u2019s programme budget. ±¬ÁÏÍøRWA emergency programmes and key projects, also operating with large shortfalls, are funded through separate funding portals.<\/p>\n

±¬ÁÏÍøRWA is a United Nations agency established by the General Assembly in 1949 and mandated to provide assistance and protection to some 5.4 million Palestine refugees registered with ±¬ÁÏÍøRWA across its five fields of operation. Its mission is to help Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip achieve their full human development potential, pending a just and lasting solution to their plight. ±¬ÁÏÍøRWA services encompass education, health care, relief and social services, camp infrastructure and improvement, protection and microfinance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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For more information, please contact:<\/h2>\n
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Sami Mshasha<\/b><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Director of Communications, Arabic Language Spokesperson<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Mobile:<\/div>\n
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+972 (0)54 216 8295<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Office:<\/div>\n
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+972 (0)258 90724<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Show Email<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Tamara Alrifai<\/b><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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±¬ÁÏÍøRWA Spokesperson<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Mobile:<\/div>\n
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+962 (0)79 090 0140<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Show Email<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students attend their first day of the 2019-2020 school year at the ±¬ÁÏÍøRWA al-Sabra Preparatory Co-Ed School in Gaza on 25 August 2019. \u00a9 2019 ±¬ÁÏÍøRWA Photo   Today is the first day of the school year 2019-2020 for over 282,000 girls and boys who attend schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":301,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"template-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[1329],"document-source":[1817],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1945,2033,2005,1745],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-219489","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-press-release","document-source-united-nations-relief-and-works-agency-for-palestine-refugees-in-the-near-east-unrwa","document-subject-assistance","document-subject-children","document-subject-gaza-strip","document-subject-refugees-and-displaced-persons","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/219489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/219489\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=219489"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=219489"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=219489"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=219489"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=219489"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=219489"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=219489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}