Urgent Rehabilitation Services and Psycho-Social Support in Gaza - Humanity and Inclusion 2018

July 2018 - Palestinians face a long-term humanitarian crisis with approximately 1 in 2 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza requiring some form of humanitarian assistance. The impacts on vulnerable Palestinians include limited access to safe water and sanitation persistent food and income insecurity and the risk of sexual and gender-based violence. With GAC’s support Humanity and Inclusion is helping to address urgent post-operative and rehabilitation care needs in Gaza’s five governorates by providing outreach and center-based multi-disciplinary rehabilitation services for vulnerable Palestinians. These services include wound care first rehabilitation responses as well as individualized and collective psychosocial support to persons with injuries and their caretakers. The project also entails the procurement and provision of requisite assistive devices for persons with injuries and the capacity building of outreach teams on trauma management amputation rehabilitation burn and wound management and rehabilitation and psychological first aid so that they can provide standardized lifesaving care. The project collaborates with various actors and clusters to ensure an inclusive and coordinated response that takes cognizance of the needs of persons with disabilities. Project activities include: (1) providing multidisciplinary nursing care rehabilitation and psychosocial services to persons with injuries and caretakers; (2) procuring and distributing specific assistive devices to beneficiaries; (3) referring persons with injuries to service providers to address other specific needs; (4) providing training for caretakers on basic home-based rehabilitation and follow up exercises; and (5) providing training for caregiver facilitators on the provision of peer to peer psychosocial support conducted.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) improved functional abilities of injured children and adults in Gaza’s five governorates; (2) improved capacity of outreach and centre-based teams services and caretakers to provide comprehensive inclusive gender-sensitive and qualitative multi-disciplinary rehabilitation services for injured persons; and (3) enhanced ability among caregivers to provide gender-sensitive peer-to-peer support to other caregivers. The expected ultimate outcome is lives saved suffering alleviated and human dignity maintained in countries experiencing humanitarian crises or acute food insecurity.