{"id":209433,"date":"2015-02-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T19:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?p=209433"},"modified":"2019-03-12T19:45:30","modified_gmt":"2019-03-12T19:45:30","slug":"auto-insert-209433","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/auto-insert-209433\/","title":{"rendered":"Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA hygiene campaign helps keep displaced persons healthy amid on-going shelter living in Gaza – Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA press release"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA HYGIENE CAMPAIGN HELPS KEEP PEOPLE HEALTHY AMID ON-GOING SHELTER LIVING<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

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27 February 2015<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

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

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A rigorous hygiene campaign is playing a key role preventing any major disease outbreaks in Collective Centres, some eight months since displaced people first sought shelter from the July\/August 2014 hostilities.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Almost 10,000 internally-displaced persons (IDPs) remain living in 14 Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA Collective Centres across the Gaza Strip, unable to afford alternative housing amongst critical housing shortages exacerbated by a slow reconstruction pace. Over 100,000 refugee dwellings were damaged or destroyed during the conflict, according to technical assessments undertaken by Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Since the ceasefire on 26 August, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) trainers – IDPs employed as part of the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA Job Creation Programme – have worked around the clock to maintain cleanliness standards; working often in challenging and overcrowded living confines. <\/p><\/div>\n

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Eight-person hygiene committees with 50:50 ratios of youth-to-elderly and male-to-female members operate in each Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA Collective Centre, carrying out twice-daily cleanliness inspections of family living spaces, monitoring four-times daily cleaning of communal bathroom facilities and running regular hygiene training campaigns focused on best cleaning practices for children and adults.<\/p><\/div>\n

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“With so many people living closely together, we know any small outbreak of disease could reach crisis level quickly,” said Ibrahim Yaqub Alzaaneen, the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA WASH focal point at the Beit Hanoun Preparatory Boys ‘A’ Collective Centre, where 350 IDPs remain living today.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Consistent with all Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA Collective Centres, no major health outbreak has occurred at this centre. “We have had some skin disease issues, but these people are always isolated and treated to avoid contamination,” Mr. Alzaaneen said. <\/p><\/div>\n

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The campaign WASH team also performs daily testing of the Centre’s potable water supply and weekly cleaning of all water tanks. <\/p><\/div>\n

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As with each month since the ceasefire, around 1,600 IDPs living in the Agency’s Collective Centres recently participated in one of the 60 Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA hygiene campaigns. The WASH trainers also carried out 20 awareness-raising sessions around dental hygiene and personal health promotion targeting 500 IDPs, and 20 recreational and support activities promoting healthy hygiene practices to over 600 children living across its Collective Centres.<\/p><\/div>\n

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“People are facing many challenges living in our Collective Centres for this extended time, but we know WASH work is the most important part of the Centre, said Mohammed Abu Qammer, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA North Area Collective Centre Coordinator. “If we let hygiene standards fall for just one day we could have a big problem.” <\/p><\/div>\n

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

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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

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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$ 81 million.<\/p><\/div>\n

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

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

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Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA Spokesperson<\/p><\/div>\n

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Chief of Communications & Arabic Language Spokesperson<\/p><\/div>\n

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

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

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

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

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

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Milina Shahin<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

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Public Information Officer – Gaza Field Office<\/p><\/div>\n

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

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+972 599 609 485<\/p><\/div>\n

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

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+972 8 2887213<\/p><\/div>\n

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m.shahin2@unrwa.org(link sends e-mail)<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

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http:\/\/www.unrwa.org\/newsroom\/press-releases\/unrwa-hygiene-campaign-helps-keep-people-healthy-amid-going-shelter-living<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA HYGIENE CAMPAIGN HELPS KEEP PEOPLE HEALTHY AMID ON-GOING SHELTER LIVING 27 February 2015 Gaza A rigorous hygiene campaign is playing a key role preventing any major disease outbreaks in Collective Centres, some eight months since displaced people first sought shelter from the July\/August 2014 hostilities. Almost 10,000 internally-displaced persons (IDPs) remain living in 14 […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[1329],"document-source":[1817],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1769,1945,2005,2533,5200,2613,2153,2729],"entity":[5343,1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-209433","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-armed-conflict","document-subject-assistance","document-subject-gaza-strip","document-subject-health","document-subject-humanitarian-relief","document-subject-internally-displaced-persons","document-subject-refugee-camps","document-subject-shelter","entity-palestine-plo-palestinian-authority","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/209433","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\/209433\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=209433"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=209433"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=209433"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=209433"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=209433"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=209433"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=209433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}