The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has signed an agreement with Mercy-USA for Aid and Development to provide critical health and education interventions to Palestine refugees living in the Gaza Strip.

According to a UNRWA press statement,  the US$ 250,000 contribution will provide funding for some 35,000 mammograms to at-risk Palestine refugee women. Additional health interventions include the provision of medical equipment for vision screening ensuring more than 90,000 students are screened for visual impairment via services managed by UNRWA school health teams. Glucometers and glucostics for hundreds of diabetic Palestine refugees, most of them children, will also be provided.

The contribution will also support educational services for 520 visually impaired refugee girls and boys who receive care at the UNRWA Rehabilitation Centre for the Visually Impaired (RCVI). Funding will be used to provide dozens of tablets for students to ensure access to education, especially in the event of a return to remote learning in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Mercy-USA is also financing upgrades and repairs to the RCVI facility’s yard and solar power system, with the aim of enhancing the learning environment for students and their teachers. Through its specialized education, rehabilitation, orientation, and life skills classes, the RCVI has assisted thousands of visually impaired students in gaining the skills and the confidence they need to successfully navigate hurdles to education access and job opportunities in Gaza. This is the third round of funding support from Mercy-USA to the UNRWA RCVI, providing invaluable support to the critical services provided by the Centre.

UNRWA health, education and relief, and social services programs are three of the Agency’s core programs delivered to Palestine refugees across all five of its fields of operation. In the Gaza Strip alone, the UNRWA Health Department has historically registered an average of 4 million patient consultations across 22 healthcare centers every year. Additionally, the Agency is proud to provide free primary education to more than 286,000 girls and boys across 278 schools in the 365 km² enclave.

Mercy-USA, a long-standing partner to the Agency, seeks to alleviate human suffering by supporting projects focused primarily on health, nutrition, and economic and educational empowerment.