International
organisations are playing a critical role in Gaza's recovery, said Charles Clayton, World Vision National Director for Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza, addressing a high-level international meeting
today. International Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) offer a unique contribution to humanitarian relief and recovery efforts, providing diversity, specialisation, and a connection to the
grassroots, said Clayton.
'A world in which the NGO community ceases to play a significant role would greatly decrease our collective ability to serve the people of Gaza,' said Clayton in
his address. 'Together, the UN and the NGO community create a whole greater than the sum of its parts.'
Clayton spoke on the need for coordination of international efforts to provide
relief and promote reconstruction in Gaza at the United Nations Seminar on Assistance to the Palestinian People. The two-day meeting concludes today in Cairo, Egypt, and contributes to international
efforts to support the process of recovery and reconstruction following an extended blockade and a three-week conflict with Israel that devastated the Gaza Strip.
The diversity provided by
NGOs like World Vision and scores of others, greatly increases the reach of advocacy messages which are so crucial to the success of the upcoming recovery and reconstruction efforts, Clayton said. 'We
bring the Gaza Crisis to the kitchen table. Simply put, when our trucks are stopped at Karni and Kerem Shalom, our supporters know about it in Canterbury and Kansas,' said the World Vision National
Director.
Describing the role that NGOs have to play in providing specialised support Clayton referred to the much-needed psychosocial support that World Vision is providing to the
children of Gaza. A World Vision study in one area of the Gaza Strip found that 20 percent of boys and 30 percent of girls suffered from severe distress. A further third of all children surveyed had
witnessed the killing of a friend or close relative.
NGOs like World Vision have a role in bringing crises to life in the minds of world leaders and ordinary citizens at the grassroots,
said Charles Clayton; 'the restriction on cement means that a girl named Miriam from the Shaburah Camp will continue to sleep in a room with more than 20 other people because her house cannot be
rebuilt. And the restrictions on medical equipment mean that when Haniyeh from Rafah cannot repair her wheelchair, she has to lie on a mattress on the floor all day.'
Clayton also reminded
those present of the critical role that local NGOs can play, describing them as the 'bedrock of a meaningful Palestinian state.'
Clayton addressed the seminar both as National Director for
World Vision and as Chairman of AIDA, the Association of International Development Agencies, which is the primary body for international NGOs engaged in development and relief in the occupied
Palestinian territories.
Also in attendance at the two-day event were internationally renowned experts, representatives of United Nations Members and Observers, intergovernmental
organisations, the United Nations system, civil society and the media.
For more information or to arrange an interview with Charles Clayton, contact Ashley Clements on +61 437 491 471 or
email ashley_clements@wvi.org OR Jeff Hall on +972 54 774 9532 or email jeff_hall@wvi.org
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
Children sit near the scene where a suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber attacked in the morning, outside a mosque in Akuressa March 10, 2009. A suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber killed ...
