{"id":198728,"date":"2014-08-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T17:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?p=198728"},"modified":"2019-03-12T17:39:24","modified_gmt":"2019-03-12T17:39:24","slug":"auto-insert-198728","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/auto-insert-198728\/","title":{"rendered":"Health and hygiene a priority at Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA emergency shelters – Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA press release"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

\n

\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

HEALTH AND HYGIENE A CONTINUING PRIORITY AT Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA EMERGENCY SHELTERS;
\nNEW AWARENESS CAMPAIGN TO BE IMPLEMENTED BY BENEFICIARIES<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

\n

13 August 2014<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

\n

Gaza<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

الصحة والنظافة أولوية مستمرة في مراكز الإيواء الطارئ التابعة للأونروا؛ حملة توعية جديدة سينفذها المنتفعون<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

After a month of hostilities and with more than 220,000 women, men and children still taking refuge in Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA schools in Gaza, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA continues to implement new initiatives in an effort to maintain the health and cleanliness of its shelters.  This week, a hygiene and water campaign was launchedin 90 shelters across all five areas of the Gaza Strip.<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

The campaign is specifically designed to ensure that internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA schools are aware of, and take responsibility for, helping to promote clean shelters and prevent any major health issues, including scabies, lice and water related diseases.<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

“We are facing an insufficient supply of potable and non-potable water and a very real risk of consumption of contaminated water; our new campaign addresses both of these issues and builds on the health and cleanliness efforts that Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA has prioritized from the first day our shelters were opened,” said Mr Scott Anderson, Deputy Director of Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA Operations in Gaza.<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

“Whilst we know that it is common in any humanitarian emergency for health problems to occur, these are often caused by poor hygiene and water practices; there are ways in which we can try to prevent it. There has already been some contained lice and scabies cases, and the last thing distraught Gazans need right now is a widespread outbreak of disease,” added Mr Anderson.<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

In partnership with Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵICEF, the distribution of advocacy posters for display in bathrooms and water points in all Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA shelters was the first step of the behaviour change campaign. This will be closely followed by the training of thirty volunteer medical students on best practice regarding sanitation and water use in emergencies.<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

The volunteers will train existing water and environment focal points and Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA’s Job Creation Program staff at shelters. The training will include local monitoring of tap water use. This team will then select and train hygiene and water committees comprising of IDPs at each shelter. These committees will include two women, two men and four youth – two girls and two boys. The IDP committees will be tasked with advocating on health and water practices with all IDPs.<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

The initiative is being rolled out amongst incredible challenges, including insufficient access to potable and non-potable water, destroyed water and sanitation infrastructure, ongoing security concerns due to resumed violence and the high number of IDPs in Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA shelters, which at its peak was more than five times the anticipated amount.<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

“The ongoing conflict makes it even more difficult to access sufficient water supplies, and to monitor general hygiene within the shelters. Should the situation escalate again, we will be in greater danger of an outbreak of disease. Everything is at breaking point, but we are continuing our efforts to meet the needs of the people in our care,” said Mr Anderson.<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

In addition to this new initiative, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA continues to distribute family and baby hygiene kits and other cleaning materials to each of its 90 open shelters.<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

BACKGROÄ¢¹½ÊÓƵD INFORMATION<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

\n

Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA is a United Nations agency established by the General Assembly in 1949 and is mandated to provide assistance and protection to a population of some 5 million registered Palestine refugees. Its mission is to help Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank and the Gaza Strip to achieve their full potential in human development, pending a just solution to their plight. Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA’s services encompass education, health care, relief and social services, camp infrastructure and improvement, and microfinance.<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

Financial support to Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA has not kept pace with an increased demand for services caused by growing numbers of registered refugees, expanding need, and deepening poverty. As a result, the Agency's General Fund (GF), supporting Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA’s core activities and 97 per cent reliant on voluntary contributions, has begun each year with a large projected deficit. Currently the deficit stands at US$ 68 million.<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

For more information, please contact:<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

\n

Christopher Gunness<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

\n

Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA Spokesperson<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

Mobile: <\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

\n

+972 (0)54 240 2659<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

Office: <\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

\n

+972 (0)2 589 0267<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

c.gunness@unrwa.org(link sends e-mail)<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

\n

Sami Mshasha<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

\n

Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA Arabic Spokesperson<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

Mobile: <\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

\n

+972 (0)54 216 8295<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

Office: <\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

\n

+972 (0)2 589 0724<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

s.mshasha@unrwa.org<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HEALTH AND HYGIENE A CONTINUING PRIORITY AT Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA EMERGENCY SHELTERS; NEW AWARENESS CAMPAIGN TO BE IMPLEMENTED BY BENEFICIARIES 13 August 2014 Gaza الصحة والنظافة أولوية مستمرة في مراكز الإيواء الطارئ التابعة للأونروا؛ حملة توعية جديدة سينفذها المنتفعون After a month of hostilities and with more than 220,000 women, men and children still taking refuge in […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[2437,1329],"document-source":[1817],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1769,1945,2533,2613,2349,3589,1745,2729],"entity":[5343,1729],"document-language":[6544,6542],"class_list":["post-198728","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-arabic-text","document-category-press-release","document-source-united-nations-relief-and-works-agency-for-palestine-refugees-in-the-near-east-unrwa","document-subject-armed-conflict","document-subject-assistance","document-subject-health","document-subject-internally-displaced-persons","document-subject-living-conditions","document-subject-population","document-subject-refugees-and-displaced-persons","document-subject-shelter","entity-palestine-plo-palestinian-authority","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-arabic","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/198728","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\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/198728\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=198728"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=198728"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=198728"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=198728"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=198728"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=198728"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=198728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}