JERUSALEM, Wednesday, December 19, 2018 (WAFA) - The Director General of Taawon (Welfare Association), Tafeeda Jarbawi, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Director of Communications and Spokesperson, Sami Mshasha, signed on Wednesday a $1.5 million Memorandum of Understanding to support the UNRWA education program.

The grant, which has been made possible through joint matched funding from Taawon and the Open Society Foundations, will enhance critical thinking skills at UNRWA schools and provide psycho-social and counselling support to Palestine refugee students across Jordan, Lebanon, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Syria, according to an UNRWA press release.

More than 250,000 Palestine refugee children, their teachers and the wider UNRWA school community will benefit from the program, it said.

Critical thinking is an important life skill which not only helps students to achieve their full potential, but can also help promote self-development, participation and encourage positive social behaviors. UNRWA school counsellors play a vital role in providing essential psychosocial support services to UNRWA students to better enable them to cope with the many challenges they face.

The Director of the UNRWA Department of Education, Caroline Pontefract, welcomed the important contribution: “Strengthening critical thinking skills and providing children with counselling and psychosocial support can significantly contribute to students overall well-being and help improve learning outcomes for Palestine refugee children. We are very grateful to Taawon and Open Society Foundations for their generous support, particularly during a year when UNRWA has faced unprecedented challenges to continue to fund its education program.”

Jarbawi, stated: “Since Taawon’s establishment in 1983, education has always been amongst the top priority sectors it most heavily invested in.  To date, over $250 million have been invested by Taawon in education in Palestine and the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. Taawon values its long-term partnership with Open Society Foundations and its continuous cooperation with UNRWA over the past years to support Palestinian refugees.  We are very pleased, on Taawon’s 35th anniversary, to collaborate with the Open Society Foundations to support the UNRWA education program to continue the provision of critical thinking skills and psychosocial support to Palestinian refugee students."

Anthony Richter, Director of Special Initiatives at the Open Society Foundations, said: "This grant underlines our recognition that UNRWA plays an essential and irreplaceable role in promoting the rights and well-being of Palestine refugees across the Middle East, including providing education to more than half a million children. It also reflects the Open Society’s commitment to supporting high quality and inclusive education for refugee children around the world."

M.K.