Manchester charity help to rebuild Gaza universities

Human Appeal, a Manchester-based humanitarian aid charity, has completed a project where they rebuilt four Gaza universities. The three-month project saw Human Appeal plough £227,000 worth of donation into rebuilding the higher education facilities that will benefit 52,608 university students in the Palestinian territory.

Al Azhar University, the Islamic University of Gaza, the University College of Applied Science and Al Aqsa University were all either directly or indirectly by the 2014 conflict with Israel and Human Appeal set out to help start the recovery of Gaza’s crippled higher education system.

Al Azhar University suffered significant bomb damage during what was known as ‘Operation Protective Edge’. To help repair the destruction, Human Appeal undertook complete repairs, renovation and reconstruction of the university’s main campus building and provided educational essentials for Al Azhar’s students.

At the IUG, Human Appeal provided financial support for students who became unable to pay their fees due to the economic destruction caused by the 2014 war. As well as this Human Appeal, provided the Islamic University of Gaza labs with laptops and upgrading the existing IT facilities for engineering students.

UCAS University – which is the biggest applied science higher education facility in Palestine - also received structural repairs to its damaged buildings from Human Appeal, as well as donations in the form of lab equipment, computers, LCDs and smart board.

At Al Aqsa University the charity, based in the Withington area of Greater Manchester, provided three ICT labs with desktop computers, printers and LCD projectors.

Mr Othman Moqbel, CEO of Human Appeal, said of the project:

Mr Moqbel added: