Today's Edition
GENEVA (REUTERS)
The UN children’s agency said on Tuesday it had for the first time in two-and-a-half years been able to deliver school kits with learning materials into Gaza after they were previously blocked by Israeli authorities.
Thousands of kits, including pencils, exercise books and wooden cubes to play with, have now entered the enclave, UNICEF said.
"We have now, in the last days, got in thousands of recreational kits, hundreds of school-in-a-carton kits. We're looking at getting 2,500 more school kits in, in the next week, because they've been approved," UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said.
Children in Gaza have faced an unprecedented assault on the education system, as well as restrictions on the entry of some aid materials, including school exercise books and pencils, Elder said. During the conflict some children missed out on education altogether, facing basic challenges like finding water, as well as widespread malnutrition, amid a major humanitarian crisis.
"It's been a long two years for children and for organisations like UNICEF to try and do that education without those materials. It looks like we're finally seeing a real change," Elder stated.
UNICEF is scaling up its education to support half of children of school age - around 336,000 - with learning support. Teaching will mainly happen in tents, Elder said, due to widespread devastation of school buildings in the enclave during the war.
