PLAYGROUNDS for PALESTINE UK
building playgrounds with love
We're just a group of ordinary people who believe that children everywhere have the right to be just that – children. Our focus is children and childhood. Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, we have now funded seven playgrounds and more are planned - see 'Current projects'.
Gaza children’s trauma highlights need for play
A new report on the impact of the war in Palestine in May underscores why we emphasise the role of playgrounds in helping to alleviate children’s trauma and upholding their right to childhood.
Surveying 530 Palestinian children from across the Gaza Strip, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor found that more than 90% suffered from some form of conflict-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This is in a community of a million children where as many as a third already needed support for trauma caused by previous attacks.
The impact has been terrible. This is the testimony of one mother about her 12-year old, Mutassim:
“He lost consciousness upon seeing his brother lying on the ground, and since that day, he has been behaving strangely; suddenly screaming in anger, laughing, or crying all day for no reason. When he sleeps, he keeps shouting his brother’s name throughout the night.”
66 children were killed in the 11-day war, while 241 lost one or both of their parents and at least 470 were injured. Some now face permanent or long-term disabilities.
The homes of 5,400 were destroyed and those of over 42,000 damaged. 72,000 were displaced to relatives’ homes or UNRWA schools. As many as 400,000 now struggle to access water.
Playgrounds can seem irrelevant in the face of loss and injury on this scale. But children’s need for play is profound – and never more so than when trying to move on from what Euro-Med describes as ‘the sounds of bombs and the horrifying images of blood and destruction’.
A new report on the impact of the war in Palestine in May underscores why we emphasise the role of playgrounds in helping to alleviate children’s trauma and upholding their right to childhood.
Surveying 530 Palestinian children from across the Gaza Strip, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor found that more than 90% suffered from some form of conflict-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This is in a community of a million children where as many as a third already needed support for trauma caused by previous attacks.
The impact has been terrible. This is the testimony of one mother about her 12-year old, Mutassim:
“He lost consciousness upon seeing his brother lying on the ground, and since that day, he has been behaving strangely; suddenly screaming in anger, laughing, or crying all day for no reason. When he sleeps, he keeps shouting his brother’s name throughout the night.”
66 children were killed in the 11-day war, while 241 lost one or both of their parents and at least 470 were injured. Some now face permanent or long-term disabilities.
The homes of 5,400 were destroyed and those of over 42,000 damaged. 72,000 were displaced to relatives’ homes or UNRWA schools. As many as 400,000 now struggle to access water.
Playgrounds can seem irrelevant in the face of loss and injury on this scale. But children’s need for play is profound – and never more so than when trying to move on from what Euro-Med describes as ‘the sounds of bombs and the horrifying images of blood and destruction’.
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We will continue to do what we can to raise money to build playgrounds so that children have somewhere safe to play and to just be children. Please help if you can. |
We are all volunteers so have minimal expenses. We work closely with our American colleagues and founding organisation Playgrounds for Palestine and are honoured to be affiliated with Children of Peace, a non-partisan charity dedicated to building trust, friendship and reconciliation between Palestinian and Israeli children, and their communities.
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GAZA Two playgrounds have been built in Gaza and a third is currently being built in a joint project with Playgrounds for Palestine USA, and the University of Gaza. |
WEST BANK Our first playground was at Kobar, Ramallah. We have recently completed a specialist playground at a school for the blind near Bethlehem. Another outdoor gym has been built for older students at a school near Beit Jala, and we are currently fundraising for a new forest playground at Jenin and a playground at Silwan. |
LEBANON Two playgrounds have been built for Palestinian children at refugee camps in Lebanon. |
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Central Park in New York (an area of 3.41 square km) has 21 playgrounds. Gaza (365 square km), the third most populated area in the world with about 40% of the population under the age of 14, has only 30 in total. |
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WHY PLAYGROUNDS?
Playgrounds support creativity and learning, promote physical and mental health, bring families together, deter children from playing in unsafe areas, provide a place that is only about play, and, of course, friendships are fun! |
Playgrounds for Palestine UK is a non-political charity, registered in the UK.
Registered charity number: 1164949 We are the UK chapter of PfP in the USA https://playgroundsforpalestine.org/ |
WHY PALESTINE?
"UNICEF estimates that at least 373,000 children (nearly half of Gaza’s children) need specialised psychosocial support. Gaza’s children have been condemned, through no fault of their own, to a future without hope." Lord Warner, House of Lords. July 2016 |
