Shereen Al-Akka

Disabled people are suffering further than their disabilities, it extends to their daily necessities and ways to secure it which exacerbates the feeling of inability, stressed by" Aum mohammad moharam "a 50-year-old woman who has 3 of her children on their second decade are suffering from paralysis and cerebral palsy.   

Fadel, Mohamad and Fatma raised up with a full-dependency on their mother whether in mobility, eating or even bathing. "As I get older my body didn't help me anymore to carry them around. Hence, it become a necessity to rely on themselves" the mother said. Disabled people's organizations help them through enabling them by giving them instructions and raising their awareness so that she can help her children to use wheelchair, as the mother said.

Regarding their disability conditions, disabled children have many special requirements. For instance, her children need 12 packs of sanitary pads monthly while she only receives 3 packs from the organizations of disabled people so she has to buy more. Besides, having special food needs or repairing the wheelchair sometimes and taking antibiotics due to psoriasis and it's a disease with no cure in Gaza as doctors says. The confused mother says" the costs of medicine, medical ointments and dermatologists' visits are expensive and completely in vain. So, I stopped looking for psoriasis treatment.

She totally relies on the organizations that supports disabled people as it provides them with services and health care in the northern Gaza strip. Moreover, she also depends on aid given by Ministry of Social Development despite of last aid she received a year ago.

Disabled people requirements extend to southern strip where the forty-year-old woman Nahla Abu Shamala from Khan-Younis faces lack of health supplies especially sanitary pads due to partial paralysis effects that she needs 4 pockets of sanitary pads monthly and she receives only one by organizations who provide services for disabled people and she buys the rest.

Apparently, her disability reveals a clear psychological impact in which it was difficult to convince her to talk with last story. Nahla clarified that after two months of her marriage when an Israeli missile has attacked her home in the Israeli aggression on Gaza in 2014. Her husband was martyred and she was left with spinal cord cut transferred into a partial paralysis. All her dreams destroyed under home rubble.

It was hard to accept help from others with a total dependence on them as it restricted my injury and she refuses to interact with others especially with people with disability, as an attempt to reject her new conditions. In addition to the psychological effects, she has financial issues. She is forced to provide health needs that the Ministry of Development and disabled people organizations cannot offer adequately. It was a bad experience with catheter and drainage bags

As it is known that, the bags secured by patients on his expenses are more stable and its use is longer than of those guaranteed by other entities.

According to a study by the researcher in the people with disabilities affairs, Mustafa Abed, which includes 92 cases from the eastern regions of Khan Yunis in 2022 indicates that their considerable need represented in medical supplies ranked in the top of study list with 73.9%, in contrast the need of auxiliary tools and health packages was 69.6%.

It is vital to mention that the number of people with disabilities in the Gaza strip reached 128000 persons, constituted 6.7% issued by/shown by the Palestinian medical relief society (PMRS) and The National Society for Rehabilitation (GNSR) fact sheet while the number of people with disabilities in the eastern region of Khan Yunis reached 5,200, according to what Abed said to last story, providing disability-related health services is a necessity besides implementing recreational programs and activities and health packages, in addition to physiotherapy and psychological support services.

Based on article No. (10) of the Law of Disabled people for the year 1999 affirms that the Ministry, in coordination with concerned bodies, shall be in charge of care and rehabilitation of the disabled people in order to issue the disabled card in health sector, diagnose and classify the degree of his disability and guarantee access to governmental health insurance that is free of charge for the disabled and his family.

Latifa al jabary, a disability-rights advocate reported that social support toward disability rights movement particularly seek to activate the disability card aiming at providing various services including psychosocial rehabilitation services, legal support and economic empowerment aimed at enhancing the integration of people with disabilities in Palestinian society. The card has established as a low not a budget, it should be in future government's plan through political decisions and financial budget so they can implement it.

Ghasan felfel, director of the Rehabilitation Department at the Ministry in Gaza explained that the ministry seeks to provide the requirements of people with disabilities according to their distribution in the governorates of Gaza if it meets their capacity.

He noted that the ministry is working to provide daily needs for disabled people in Gaza Strip through donors and relevant international institutions.

The responsible of rehabilitation file pointed out that people with disabilities are not only societal responsibility but also it lies with the Ministries of Social Development and Health. As a result, the cooperation between them led to the formation of the "National Committee for Disability" that was approved by the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers in Gaza. Its tasks are to follow up the health file of disabled people and to provide health insurance that completely exempts them from treatment fees.