INCLUSION WITH INTENTION

Dear Friends of UPA,

It is a great privilege to share with you inspiring stories of numerous lives touched by your generosity and continued support.

In this issue, we would like to take the opportunity to highlight your support of a particularly marginalized group: children and youth with disabilities.

UPA’s continued and deliberate efforts to support this underserved population paves the way to healthier and more inclusive communities.

According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, nearly ninety-three thousand Palestinians live with disabilities in the West Bank and Gaza, twenty percent of whom are children under the age of eighteen. Generally, this group of the population faces greater difficulties in equally accessing education and social services when compared to their non-disabled peers. For example, nearly half of Palestinian children with disabilities are not enrolled in formal education, while more than a third are illiterate. Lacking the support to access education early on, the unemployment rate among adults with disabilities is nearly forty percent – substantially higher than that among their nondisabled peers.

These figures indicate the unfortunate reality of exclusion experienced by people with disabilities in Palestine. As a result, UPA is actively supporting and 3 partnering with local organizations that provide safe, inclusive spaces for children and youth with disabilities.

Over the past seven years, UPA also worked to apply the same inclusive approach to support refugee communities in the Gaza and Hittin refugee camps in Jordan – the least served and most impoverished Palestinian refugee camps in the country. From the outset, UPA’s work with vulnerable communities in Jordan has included children and youth with disabilities. In fact, UPA’s first project in Jordan was with families struggling to care for their children with disabilities in the Gaza refugee camp.

UPA partners with local organizations in Jordan that work to integrate Palestinian refugees with disabilities into society. As you will read in more detail in the pages that follow, your support enables our work empower Palestinians with disabilities be active and productive members within their communities.

Sincerely,

Saleem F. Zaru
Executive Director