The Suez Foundation in the Gaza Strip
Enfants Réfugiés du monde (ERM)
From 2002 through 2006, Suez Foundation assisted the French organization Enfants Réfugiés du Monde (“Refugee Children of the World”) by supporting ERM’s training and education efforts in Gaza Strip refugee camps.
ERM has been assisting Palestinian refugee populations for many years. Since its first project in 1987, it has worked nonstop to improve the living conditions of Palestinian refugee children.
The goal of the current multi-year project (2004 - 2007) supported by the Foundation is to develop educational and socio-psychological support activities for the most vulnerable refugee children and youth at centers set up in the camps. Over 2,500 children and young people aged 6 to 16 receive direct support from 18 educator staff members. Through networking activities, the program’s outreach extends to 4,000 children in all.
In the Palestinian Territories, deteriorating teaching conditions, combined with increased poverty, have resulted in high drop-out rates (currently, only 50% of children entering 1st grade are still in school when they are 16). These drop-outs are confronted with adult realities at a very early age and often become marginalized, excluded, and the first victims of the violence they see around them daily.
Proposed activities (games, painting, theater, dance) promote creativity and self-expression as well as a sense of belonging to the local culture and physical well-being through sports. Supported by trained educational staff from their own communities, these children are allowed to reclaim their childhoods. They may also attend tutoring sessions and receive psychological counseling.
