Educare a Gaza

In 2008, R.E.C. (Remedial Education Centre, Gaza, Palestine) was carrying out theproject “Promotion of the democratic process and active participation amongyoung population in the Gaza Strip”, approved by the Europe Initiative for democracyand Human Rights, and financed by the European Union. The projectincluded a research activity, “Educational models and concept of childhood in theGaza Strip”. The research is an idea coming from the long-term collaboration,started in 2002, between EducAid (Italian Ngo, Rimini, Italy) and R.E.C. in theeducational work with the vulnerable children in the Gaza Strip.Teachers, educatorsand parents play a fundamental role in the education of children and adolescents;therefore families, associations and schools should be places where childrenbecome aware of their rights as human beings, in order to become, one day, activecitizens of a society that themselves can improve. It’s of fundamental importancethe policy that institutions carry out (supporting families, schools and associations),because it guarantees a functional education system. We interfaced with thedifferent faces of formal and informal education, and it was impossible not tohave the sensation of being inside a big prison, not too big, if we think its sizecompared to one and a half million inhabitants, between a closed tall and graywall, a sea hardly accessible due to embargo, and Erez, the check point of transitfor Israel. No gas, no fuel, no electricity, yet children continue to go to school, theroads are crowded by pedestrians who are waiting for a taxi for hours under thesun, wondering if they can go to work. The potential of education and schoolingrepresent non-violent weapons to defend peace, promote change, make childrenaware of their rights, begin to live their citizenship at school, at home, in the associations.Through the testimonies we realized how much these valuable potentialsare in danger in the Gaza Strip, as indeed in many other places in the world wherepeople are slaves to someone or something, and lose confidence, tighten up theirminds, are afraid to change, to fight for transforming what the political, social, localand international system make difficult and overwhelming.