Assessment 2005

165 KGs have been assessed in North Gaza Strip (Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahyia, Jabaliya), Gaza City (Shejahiya and Zaitoun), and South Gaza Strip (Khan Younis and Rafah). The assessed areas can be considered the most vulnerable in terms of danger, security, and socio-economic conditions. Three categories of insecurity and danger have been highlighted taking into consideration the distance from borders, settlement and checkpoints: far from, near, facing.

As for socio-economic conditions, differences are mainly based on location, sources of income and social services available. We referred to three main areas: rural, urban and refugee camps. It results that 36% are located in areas near or facing borders, settlements and checkpoints, and 63% where high unemployment rate is registered, and suffer the effects of the conflict at all levels.

61% of the families whose children attend a group of pre-selected 50 KGs located in the most vulnerable areas can be considered poor or living under the subsistence poverty line, and register an average number of 7.6 dependent members, as showed in the table below.



The above figures highlight that the majority of the families of the children attending the pre-selected KGs can be considered as extremely vulnerable under a socio-economic point of view. Figures and findings match data collected by MoE during field visits.
Such data have been furthermore confirmed with the ones gathered during the ongoing operation ECHO/-ME/BUD/2004/01036, and showed in the following table.



72% of the families of children attending the sample of six KGs located in refugee camps, cities and rural areas in South Gaza Strip, resulted to live under the subsistence poverty line, while 12% resulted to live under the poverty line, and only 16% above the poverty line.

As per the social conditions of children and families, the psycho-social assessment highlighted that within an environment characterized by chronic conditions of stress, poverty, uncertainty and weaving peaks of violence, such as Gaza Strip, the socio-educative context presents weak elements that could encourage coping mechanisms and set free human natural resources that promote resilience.
Children who are attending KGs nowadays are the ones born and grown up during the hardest period of Intifada, and until now never lived in peace.
The unsafe and non welcoming environment prevent building basis for personal and psychosocial identity of the child. Spread are attitudes of passivity, inhibition and isolation among children, who showed poor capacities of interaction and fragile social competences.

Moreover children are not stimulated to open expression of their interior experience, linguistic and communicative competences, socializing and cooperative capacities.

The political conditions have caused within the Palestinian society of the Gaza Strip an underestimation of needs of early childhood, most delicate and important moment for the building of the future personality of the adult, and an excessive emphasis on the precocious acquisition of behaviours justified by the necessity of becoming an adult in the shortest time possible.
Such underestimation is confirmed by the absence of public services for the protection of early childhood. The whole responsibility of the child growth is a burden carried by the family, particularly by the mother already busy taking care of a high number of children and having insufficient time and energy available to follow each of them.

Palestinian mothers that invest a lot on their children in terms of interest and emotional commitment, yet, live in conditions of loneliness regarding the growth of their children.
Fathers, are not directly involved in the education and care of the children and mothers do not have other adults that could represent a continuative support for them.
Furthermore, within the targeted areas it emerged that the majority of the women can go out from their homes only if accompanied by their husbands or in presence of justified reasons, such as for a visit to the paediatric, or to participate to meetings organized by somebody influential, therefore often they lack moments of exchange with other mothers and also of concrete support within a logic of developing networks of mutual help.
In such conditions their educative approach is mainly characterized by the control of the children within the necessity to prevent problematic behaviours.
This attitude results to be inadequate to face the psychosocial problematic of children, whose behaviours, at this age, are often strongly aggressive and obstinate, or on the opposite with a trend to isolation.
During the carried out observations it resulted that five years old children, if left without an adult guiding them, play always and solely simulating military incursions, Intifada, funerals of martyrs and the relief of injured people.
These children, since little, share time with groups of older children, not rarely they are organized as baby gangs, performing behaviours source of social and family anxiety.

Furthermore, during the focus groups carried out especially in unsafe areas and characterized by bad social and economic conditions, it resulted a remarkable increase of intra-familiar violence, both within parents relationships, and as for the abuse of corporal and psychological punishments towards children.
Such condition seams to support the birth of a vicious circle within which the increase of controlling behaviours by the mothers, however ineffective, lead to the increase of childrenÕs behaviours to be controlled.

As per the educative pre-school system, the existing KGs do not answer to the total need of early childhood. KGs are attended by 54% of children born during the year 1999, attending the preparatory class to primary school, and, 15% of children born during 2000-2001 attending the first two years of early childhood education.
The data can be considered as a coping strategy adopted by families in order to grant a minimum of pre-school education to the majority of their children.

KGs, aware, have set special conditions to facilitate families and increase the attendance number of hardship case children. Nevertheless, registration fees are still to high for families economic capacities, being 30 NIS/month.
KGs linked to non profit associations request lower fees, compared to private KGs, but, the difference is not so remarkable.
We assume therefore that is the necessary amount to cover support costs of the structures and cannot be reduced. By a matter of facts, all KGs suffer lack of basic equipments to carry out main activities.

KGs assessed are in need of rehabilitation works to the structure premises. General needs are: rehabilitation or building of new ceilings, improvement of aeration and illumination in the class rooms, lack of basic furniture, rehabilitation to internal and external toilets, building or expanding the sunshade roof.
Other consequence of the low incomes of KGs is the difficulty to employ professionally skilled personnel. This reflects on the educative plan, also quantitative data confirm that KGs do not represent a resilient environment in terms of: attention towards child needs; importance given to playing and creative activities; emotional and structural welcoming environment.