Unicef: Growing poverty in Gaza pushing children to work

Unicef
..... Child labour is on the rise in Gaza and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.... hunger and need drive families to allow their children to abandon schooling. Gaza’s borders remain largely closed, and the entry and exit of goods is severely restricted.

Six months after the end of Israel’s ‘Cast Lead’ military operation here, restrictions on imports are making it virtually impossible for Gazans to rebuild their lives.

According to a report published in June by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), only 2,662 truckloads of goods entered Gaza from Israel in May of this year – a decrease of almost 80 per cent from the 11,392 truckloads allowed in during April 2007, just prior to the Hamas takeover of Gaza.

Impact of unemployment
The ICRC report warns that the closure of Gaza has pushed the unemployment rate to 44 per cent (as of April 2009) and caused a dramatic increase in poverty. Today, more than 70 per cent of Gazans live in poverty, with an income of less than $250 a month for a family of up to nine.
The weekly wage of 20 shekels (equivalent to $5) that Nael earns at the body shop is not enough to feed his family, he said. But his father, who used to work in Israel, has been unemployed for years. Nael’s success at this difficult job is his family’s only hope.

...... These trends are having an impact on Palestinian society. Palestinian literacy rates remain among the highest in the Arab world – especially for girls – at 99 per cent for both males and females. Nevertheless, learning achievement has declined along with primary school enrolment in recent years.

In 2008, for example, only about 20 per cent of the 16,000 sixth-graders in Gaza passed standardized tests in Arabic, English, mathematics and science, compared with around 50 per cent of their peers in Nablus and Jenin in the West Bank......

“I am good in school,” said Nael, who likes his religion class and wishes he could study at al-Azhar University in Cairo. He isn’t afraid of the heavy machines at work, but is not anxious to enter the world of work.
“I wish that I had money so that I could stay in school,” he said. Full Story