Child Centre - Gaza (CCG)
- Introduction
- The Outreach Services Unit
- Extra-curricular Educational Programmes in Science, Computer and Technology
- Enhancing Children’s Artistic and Creative Skills
- Local and International Participation
- Chats with Parents
The reporting period witnessed four programming cycles (winter and summer holiday breaks, and spring and autumn cycles). The nature of activities, programmes and workshops during holiday breaks differs from those during school terms. The activities and workshops resulted in exceptional artistic, literary, scientific and technological outputs that were celebrated with the public at the closing ceremony of summer activities. The spring and autumn cycles saw an intense work period with students through the programmes, workshops and Centre’s clubs which are carried out in coordination with schools administrations and teachers. Children, parents, teachers and school administrations were involved in the planning process of programming cycles, and in the evaluation process at the end of each cycle to use the evaluation results in future plans. This year, work focused on integrating differently-abled children in the Centre’s programmes through coordinating with relevant institutions such as Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children and al-Noor Rehabilitation Centre for the Visually Impaired. Throughout these activities, the target group showed great commitment which was reflected positively on their behaviours.
During this reporting period, the Child Centre in partnership with foreign funders implemented many of its projects including the Mobile Library project in schools and civil society institutions and public areas, particularly in marginalized areas in the Gaza Strip and in partnership with the Bank of Palestine (funding ended at the end of the year). The Centre also implemented the fourth phase of the Non-Curricular Activities project for Wajd Children with the Welfare Association, which ran from September 2018 and ended in August 2019. The Centre also implemented the Early Childhood Development Project with Save the Children which started in early June 2018 and will run until the end of February 2021.
The number of active memberships until the end of December reached 16,443 members (43% male and 57% female). The total number of members since the opening of the Centre is 56,437 including children who had memberships which expired when they reached the age of 15.
37 interactive reading activities were held at the library, targeting 121,515 children. 8 different programmes were also implemented namely; Beautiful Calligraphy (6 times), Information Culture for 20 elementary female students, STEAM for 15 teachers to introduce them to the methodology and how to practically apply it with students, in addition to two courses on how to use Dewey Decimal Classification for UNRWA schools librarians, which were attended by 80 librarians.
Several activities were implemented by the Outreach Services Unit in libraries of institutions, schools and public spaces as part of the Child Friendly Spaces, the Mobile Library and al-Bayyara Parks projects. These projects were implemented in 89 institutions (71 schools, 8 institutions, 5 friendly spaces, 5 al-Bayyara Parks), benefitting 50,316 children including 42,471 through the mobile library, 2,205 in the Friendly Spaces and 5,640 in al-Bayyara Parks. The Unit has also carried out activities in 15 kindergartens as part of the Early Childhood Care and Development Programme benefitting 4,098 beneficiaries, and a non-curricular activities programme for the children of the Wajd programme- fourth year, benefitting 340 children.
163 children participated in the “Design your Science Project” programme which opens a free space for creating and designing scientific projects based on DIY methods and the Makerspaces idea. Participating children produced various and multi-themed scientific projects including Aesthetics of Mathematics, Parametric Graphics, Water Challenges and Traffic Management Applications. 44 children participated in the DNA programme which introduces children to DNA and its most important modern applications. Whereas the Robot Architects programme attracted 59 children. The children of Science Club produced Da Vinci’s Scientific Exhibition, which reflected the integration of science and arts. 6 of the participating children produced scientific-physical exhibits inspired by the works of Da Vinci. 9 trainings programmes and 23 workshops in programming, design and graphics were organised during which children produced application models, designs and projects in the field of robotics, smart electronics and montage, benefitting 27,000 children.
27 girls participated in 5 acrobatics courses which were concluded with performances for the Centre’s audience. 116 children from different ages joined 4 Dabke courses and 78 children were involved in researching symbols and concepts in Palestinian oral heritage and stories of particular places as part of the My Homeland’s Heritage programme. 12 children took part in a play entitled The Poor and the Prince which featured in the closing ceremony of summer 2019 activities, after rehearsing for two months and a half during the “Front stage” workshop. In animation, 57 girls have been involved in the production of 3D films, and later produced 12 short films. 20 children took part in a painting on glass workshop and produced artworks that were featured in the closing exhibition of the winter 2019 activities. The Centre has also worked with the old and new children of the Little Painter’s Club focusing on enhancing the artistic skills of newer children and producing paintings from the imagination with the older children. The number of participating children was 32, while 186 artworks were produced during the four courses. The artworks were presented in two art exhibitions attended by 1100 visitor including children, parents and art enthusiasts.
The Centre participated in the activities of the National Reading Week entitled The Urn that Turned into a Galaxy in April 2019. During that week the library hosted 272 children, 254 children participated from the friendly areas and 320 from the mobile library. In March, the Centre also participated in the Palestine Tales activity for the second time as part of the fourth Hakaya festival entitled We Cultivate Tales … We Cultivate Plants which attracted 351 children inside the Centre. The Centre organised the International Day of Arabic event entitiled Fi Dhi al-Majazz during November, attracting 755 children and some parents to the library, 60 children from the Friendly Areas and 100 from the Mobile Library. The Child Centre has also participated in the School Libraries Week event in cooperation with the Ministry of Education during October, during which the library hosted 755 children and a number of parents, in addition to 60 children from Friendly Spaces and 100 children from the Mobile Library. The Mobile Library visited 10 public schools, thus benefitting 900 children. In coordination with the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music – Gaza(ESNCM), an event for the children of the Friendly Spaces In Beit Lahia was held in October through the ESNCM’s Music Bus. In November, under the title The Relation of Nature and the Network of Life .. Inspirations by the works of Scientist Alexander Von Humboldt, the Centre participated in the 2019 Science Festival. The festival attracted 1992 visitors from UNRWA, public and private schools, alongside university students, parents and their children. The Centre led two community-based initiatives in Beit Lahia and al-Maghraqa in October, and organised an expertise-sharing meeting gathering the library and outreach services unit staff with the National Qatar Library staff.
As part of the Chats with Parents programme, 31 meetings were organised to discuss topics selected in conversation with the mothers and according to their needs. A number of art, reading and scientific events were organized for children under the age of six with their parents on a daily basis, in addition to 60 meetings for parents benefiting from the Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) project.