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According to the World Health Organization, 15% of people live with a disability. Some 795,000 Palestinian refugees with disabilities are registered with UNRWA. The protracted displacement faced by Palestine refugees exacerbates the vulnerability and potential exclusion of people with disabilities from basic services due to economic difficulties. With many years of experience in providing services to persons with disabilities, UNRWA has recently convened its field offices and programs to review its work in this area and set priorities for the future to to promote accessible and inclusive services.
UNRWA held a workshop on June 27 and 28 to review progress to date and identify practical actions for the next phase of disability inclusion programming. . The Palestinian refugees with disabilities who benefit from UNRWA services as well as two UNRWA disabled employees themselves participated in the workshop to give a personal perspective of the challenges they face and of the how they face adversity. Ashraf Baqi, a boxing champion with Down syndrome, and Tahani Rabi's eh, a teacher at Queen Noor School in Al Wihdat who lives with a visually impaired, shared their inspiring stories about the world. Agency's impact in their lives. Mohammed Saleh and Amneh Saqer, who work with UNRWA in Syria, spoke about their experiences during the Syrian conflict and made recommendations on how to ensure more inclusive services. The workshop will set the stage for the disability inclusion work of the agency to be completed next year. In addition, the priorities of each program were agreed, including cross-cutting issues such as data, participation, training and advocacy.
The event is based on the launch in 2017 of the UNRWA guidelines on the inclusion of people with disabilities. on the inclusion of disability. More than 200 UNRWA staff members have been trained in the use of the guidelines. All UNRWA programs contribute to the inclusion of disability through different activities such as: specialized services for people with disabilities, early identification of disabilities and accessibility in facilities from UNRWA. For example, the education program has worked to promote an inclusive education system where the learning potential of each student and his different learning needs are recognized. In Gaza, a teacher from one of the UNRWA schools has started producing high quality accessible desks and chairs for students with disabilities using recycled materials.
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