ActionAid Palestine to Support People with Disabilities during COVID-19 Crisis
Hebron- West Bank-The interventions of the programs of ActionAid Palestine(AAP) which responded to the spread of COVID-19 in Occupied Palestinian Territory (oPt) supported a number of initiatives seeking to empower young Persons with Disabilities(PwDs), provide them with assistive devices, build their capacities and integrate them in the society. Those initiatives included targeting marginalized young women with disabilities living in southern area of Hebron to strengthen their economic empowerment, raise their awareness about their rights, issues of disability and means of adaptation. They were also trained on development of income-generating projects. Youth initiatives targeting young PwDs were also supported by building capacities of youth groups to lead and design lobbying and advocacy campaigns and hold accountability sessions to ensure that PwDs enjoy their rights and have access to services and information. Al-Dahria youth group was one of those youth groups that led an advocacy campaign in cooperation with the community organizations to claim the rights of PwDs ,highlight the impacts of COVID-19 and demand an inclusive COVID-19 response for them. Some of those initiatives seek to support some of community organizations of PwDs as supporting the rehabilitation of candles workshop of Al-Raja’a center for special education in partnership with Palestinian Red Crescent based in Hebron.
The International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) is annually observed on 3 December to promote the full and equal participation of persons with disabilities and to take action for the inclusion of persons with disabilities in all aspects of society and development .The theme this year is “Building Back Better: toward a disability-inclusive, accessible and sustainable post COVID-19 World”. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, there were some 93,000 people with disabilities in the occupied Palestinian territory in 2019, and the unemployment rate for individuals with disabilities stood at 37% in 2017.
Background Information
ActionAid
ActionAid is a global federation working for social justice and gender equality and eradicate poverty. ActionAid works worldwide to empower people living in poverty and exclusion with focus on women’s rights .ActionAid works directly and closely with communities, civil society organizations, women movements and social groups and movements and other allies to tackle root causes of poverty and oppression. ActionAid deliver grassroots programmes to utilize efforts of global struggle movements working for a just, fair and sustainable world. Based on human rights-based approach and women rights’ principles, ActionAid seeks to fairly re-distribute powers through solidarity, empowerment, awareness campaigns and creating alternatives to ensure that everybody enjoys the right to a life of dignity, and freedom from oppression.
ActionAid in Palestine (AAP) is a part of that federation which started its work in Palestine in 2007 to strengthen the resilience of Palestinian People as ActionAid believes that they should enjoy their rights to freedom, justice and self-determination. AAP implements a number of programs through its engagement with communities and women and youth groups seeking to empower them and enhance their influential civil and political participation to understand their rights and undertake collective activism to address the protracted rights violations resulting from the prolonged occupation of Palestine. AAP works simultaneously to enhance their leadership capacity and knowledge to practice their citizenship in holding authorities and other duty bearers to account.
For more information, please contact
Riham Jafari
Coordinator of Advocacy and Communication in Gaza Strip and West Bank
Mobile:
+972 (0) 595242890
Office:
+972 (0) (2) 22 13 137
Email: