Gaza City, April 24 2019 – A touching ceremony has been held this morning at the new Center for persons with disabilities, established in the framework of the project I-CAN that the italian civil society organization Educaid is implementing in Palestine thank to AICS support and a large network of partners (RIDS – Rete Italiana Disabilità e Sviluppo, FISH – Federazione Italiana Superamento Handicap, Centro Per L’Autonomia “Michele Iacontino” di Roma, Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Educazione dell’Università di Bologna, UNDP, El Amal e SDF – Social Developmental Forum).
Social and economic independence for people with disabilities is the general objective of this initiative, that mainly in the Gaza Strip aims to combating the disability mark putting PwD at the center of the activities. Through a holistic approach for PwD’s enhancement of self-confidence and social inclusion, this new Center will be crucial for the distribution of medical assistance and services for PwDs and their families, thank to a team of experts and peer counsellors, which are people with disabilities willing to share tools and stories directly with the users.
The peer-to-peer model is a result achieved by two different Humanitarian projects implemented by Educaid in the last years in Gaza, thanks to the Italian Cooperation. This proves that the italian strategy worked efficiently towards the dissemination of resilience principles among Palestinian society and community based organizations, in particular women and people with disabilities.