Child Centre-Gaza (CCG)
- Introduction
- Opportunities to enhance children's skills
- Participation in international and local events
- Parents’ programmes
- New partnerships with funders
This reporting period included four programme cycles that included winter and summer sessions. The large number of visitors to the centre during the summer break required planning activities and courses that accommodate this large number, considering the quality of services. As for the spring and autumn sessions, work was done with school programmes, courses and activities. The work with parents and children under six years of age remained present in all programme cycles.
Also, library services were enriched and developed, providing 1,113 new titles, with a total number of 3,816 copies. Specialised training programmes and workshops were also designed and implemented to support the professional development of people working with children. These included a training course for librarians to develop their design skills, and another for 34 teachers within the improved education project funded by the Norwegian Refugee Council, and training of 31 kindergarten educators who benefitted From the ECCD project co-funded by Save the Children International.
Educational extracurricular programmes were also implemented in the fields of science, computers and technology. This included the programme "Design Your Science Project," in which children produced many projects, the most prominent of which was the hydraulic city project, reflecting their vision of the energy problem affecting the Gaza Strip. Other programmes included the agriculture programme that utilised LED technology, science exhibits, Lego Science programme, DNA courses, the food factory, the Nano lab, and the Fab Lab—designed to help children with hearing impairments—and the Urban Agriculture Programme, which opens avenues for children to learn about innovative solutions to increase food sources through urban agriculture.
Ten training programmes and 26 courses in programming, design, animation, motion graphics, robotics and electronics were implemented. The children produced application models, designs and projects in the field of robotics and smart electronics, in addition to other projects specialising in design. The number of children who benefitted from these courses and programmes totalled 785, with 48% male and 52% female.
During the reporting period, a number of ballet and aerobics courses were implemented in which 90 girls participated, and courses in traditional dabkeh in which 88 children participated. From seven schools, 184 children participated in the “My Country’s Heritage” programme, and 50 children participated in the “Drama in Education” programme and the "Fourth Rozana" festival, which was held to celebrate World Heritage Day. Twenty-five children participated in a clay sculpting course, 22 children participated in an architecture course, 20 children participated in a course in Palestinian embroidery, 17 children participated in a cartoon course and 31 children participated in drawing and painting courses. In addition, a 2-D and 3-D animation programme was implemented with the participation of 38 girls. The children of the Young Painter Club—25 children participated—worked on printing skills and created paintings and conducted experiments in wood carving.
The Centre organised and participated in a number of international and local events during the reporting period, including the "National Reading Day" event, during which the Centre’s library welcomed 406 children, and the "International Day of the Arabic Language" event, during which the library welcomed 575 beneficiaries. The Centre also organized a closing ceremony for the summer 2019 events with the attendance of 700 people. A total of 110 children participated in the chess competition that was implemented in cooperation with the Palestinian Chess Federation. The Centre also organised the “Days of Science Festival,” “Food Revolution”—which had an audience of 4,062 visitors—and also participated in the “Tales of Palestine” event and the launching of the book Tales of Palestinian Refugees. The Centre implemented the International Event (Hour of Code) for the third time, and the number of beneficiaries reached 280 students, who organised an exchange meeting in partnership with the Mercy Corps Foundation, during which a group of children from the Centre met with children from the U.S. city of Concord, using portal technology (Shared Studios, Corps) to show samples of the robots they implemented and programmed. Also, children of the "Robot Engineers" programme participated in the interactive scientific and technological exhibition in the “Palestine Festival for Childhood and Education,” organised by the University College of Applied Sciences. The centre organised the Start-up Weekend Kids 2 event in partnership with the Supreme Creativity Council and the Google Developers Team for the second time.
During the reporting period, 34 parent meetings were carried out on a variety of topics, selected at the request of the participants. A number of reading, artistic, scientific and technological activities for children under 6 years were also carried out, and 17 mothers participated in the art of colouring course.
During the reporting period, the Centre continued to work on the Mobile Library Project in schools, community institutions, hospitals, public spaces and clinics in remote and marginalised areas throughout the strip, with funding from the Bank of Palestine.
Funding was also provided by the Welfare Association, which assisted with a project for children’s activities in Al Bayara parks in the Gaza Strip, as well as continuing the work on Wajd Project for the fourth consecutive year. A new partnership with the Norwegian Refugee Council allowed for an improved education project targeting 10 primary schools in North Gaza. A new partnership with Save the Children allowed for the implementation of an ECCD project begun on 7 January 2018 and will continue until 28 February 2022. Also, a child-friendly areas project was implemented, with co-funding from the GIZ’s Civil Peace Project.