DSPR (aka NECC) was launched in 1952 to serve the 198,000 Palestinian refugees in Gaza following the formation of the state of Israel (Nakba) — today, that number is over 1.9 million.
DSPR has developed three areas of specialism: early years and maternal health, training and equipping young people with employment skills and providing psychosocial trauma support to children, parents and young people in their training centres.
DSPR
(Also known as NECC)
Amos has partnered with DSPR’s youth training and psychosocial programmes since 2011, as youth unemployment was so high due to the Israeli Blockade of Gaza that had begun in 2007 and because young people saw such little hope for the future.
Before 7th October 2023, DSPR had four technical and vocational training centres in carpentry, metalwork, electrical engineering, solar power and refrigeration, alongside courses in advanced dressmaking, secretarial studies, office management and Gaza’s first women-only graphic design course. English language teaching, specialist mentoring into employment and psychological support was provided to all students.
Following the 2008/9 war on Gaza, Operation Cast Lead, DSPR started providing psychosocial trauma support to children, parents and young people for the post-traumatic stress that was evident among so much of the population.
Ongoing trauma
Initially set up as a temporary response, they soon realised that the living conditions in Gaza and frequent attacks meant that they had to provide this as a continuous specialised service to address ongoing trauma. They set up play therapy programmes for children and groups, including 1:1 support programmes for parents (and families).
At the start of the war in October 2023, DSPR had to close all their health, psychosocial support and training centres as they were in areas targeted by the Israeli assault. They opened a health and trauma support unit for women and children in Rafah that treated 28,000 people and provided psychosocial support to 15,000 children, their families and bereaved mothers.
Following the Israeli assault on Rafah, DSPR opened a mobile health clinic, providing treatment to 260 people a day. Later, they converted a wedding hall in central Gaza into a new medical centre, which also provides a base for their trauma support work with women and children.
In Gaza City, staff dug out equipment from their bombed-out health centres and used it to create temporary medical centres from which they also offer trauma support to children.
Take a look through our range of resources, blog posts, downloads and products to find out more about our Palestine Justice work.
This month’s Story of Hope comes from Amos Trust Director Chris Rose as he reflects on what it means to ‘do hope’ during such a challenging year in the West Bank and Gaza. “Over the past year, it has felt as if hope has been buried under the rubble of Gaza. It has been as impossible to hear ‘another world breathing’ as it has been to hear the Palestine sunbirds sing. We have seen the very worst of people’s inhumanity and the outlook remains bleak.”
Stories, not numbers. When the world talks about Palestinians living under occupation and in refugee camps, it is usually in terms of politics and numbers. But numbers are impersonal, and often numbing. We Are Not Numbers are a Palestinian youth advocacy organisation who tell the human stories behind the numbers in the news from Gaza.
Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City was bombed on 17th October 2023 — up to 500 people were killed. Despite the extreme adversity, the Al Ahli Hospital staff and volunteers are committed to serving the community through out-patient and in-patient care.
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The Boycott Puma Campaign seeks to put pressure on the sportswear company Puma to end their sponsorship of the Israel Football Association, who as documented by Human Rights Watch, includes 6 Israeli football clubs based in illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land. Puma’s current and past exclusive licensees in Israel also have operations in illegal Israeli settlements.
In 2009, all the main Palestinian churches came together to form Kairos Palestine. Their campaign has enjoyed recent success with the Quakers, URC and Methodists. Now see how you can become involved with Sabeel-Kairos in pressing denominations to change and with the wider work undertaken.
Amos Trust
7 Bell Yard, London
WC2A 2JR
UK
Telephone:
+44 (0) 203 725 3493
Email:
[email protected]
Registered Charity No.
1164234
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