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.