|
SWISH
Author: Max White
Executive Officer - Victoria Chapter,
Australia Arab Chamber of Commerce & Industry Inc.
Melbourne, Australia
Co-author: Dr Jean Palnet
Introduction
There are many medical and social needs in various countries of the
Middle East and this pictorial essay outlines a program in the Gaza
Strip run by Dr Jean Palnet of Australia.
It involves the provision of sport and recreation facilities
particularly for disabled men, but also for children with disabilities.
Picture 1:
Playing Swish
|
Picture 2 |
Picture 3:
The team with Dr Palnet
|
Picture 4:
Blind school children in Gaza City
|
Picture 5:
Palestine Red Crescent Society
|
Picture 6:
The library of the PRCS [Palestine Red Crescent
Society] College of Ability Development |
The AACCII has supported Jean Palnet in getting to her a few bit and
pieces which can be used by her friends in the Gaza Strip. The swish
balls just being one small item that has been sent across. Swish balls
are made of plastic with holes, which allows the enclosed bell to be
heard. (see Picture 2) These balls are used by the visually impaired to
play ‘push table tennis’ as seen in the photos.
Jean is a truly wonderful Australian. She was awarded the
Order
of Australia in 2005 for her humanitarian work, particularly with
people with disabilities living in refugee camps and disadvantaged
areas of the Middle East.
We are also looking at a couple of fund raising events in order that we
can purchase some much needed equipment.
The young men in the photo are all legally blind, except for the one
shown face on hitting the ball in Picture 2 – he has a
learning
disability and a divergent squint. We have a few girls who
where
playing previously, but there are more young men involved in sport than
the girls. The group has recently restarted following a break
because of two problems – no balls to play with as the few we
had
were broken and no replacements could be found or made here. Thus the
balls sent enabled a re-start. The other problem we face from
time to time is difficulty in finding transport monies to assist
participants to come to activities. There are about 20 young people
involved in the group – we also have chess, backgammon,
dominoes,
and hopefully we will soon be able to start goal ball. The
man in
the wheelchair (Picture 1) is the person responsible for the running of
the sports hall programs. He is keen to assist the group. [We
also have other groups of people with disability playing sport
–
wheelchair basketball; sitting volleyball; and a deaf group playing
football (5-a-side which is popularin the Gaza Strip ) and table
tennis. We have some women (wheelchair users and deaf)
playing
table tennis, but the other activities involve just men.
I gave some of the balls to the school for blind children which is
located in Gaza City. It seems they had stopped playing because they
had not been able to replace the balls that had broken. The
physical education teacher was not present when I came – I
had
made an appointment with the Director of the Centre. I just
took
a photo of some of the children from the school who happened to be
playing in the school grounds.
The other photos were taken in the library of the PRCS [Palestine Red
Crescent Society] College of Ability Development. We have the
four year degree program in Rehabilitation. The books sent from the
AACCII have been placed in the library. One of the photos
shows
the Librarian talking to Dr Palnet, and the other with some volunteers
[they all have degrees in library science] who are working at
cataloguing new books. The majority of our books are in
Arabic
language, but we do have a good section of English language
books. The library is used by students and staff of different
universities and colleges throughout the Gaza Strip in addition to our
own students and staff and other PRCS personnel.
|
|
