Scholarships Run DEEP: Wael Barda'a
Wael Barda’a, 47, lives in Al Shejaiya Gaza, an old eastern suburb in Gaza City, it’s highly populated with limited livelihood resources. Wael is the sole breadwinner for a family of 13, and his family has been identified as living in an extreme poverty situation. In addition to the limited financial resources, Wael suffers from partial visual disability that six of his children have inherited. Among those, is Neda, 20, an Al Fakhoora scholar who has been awarded a scholarship, with the second phase of entrants in 2010, to pursue her higher studies as a History major in Social Studies at Al Azhar University in Gaza.
Neda was selected with a group of students with special needs that Al Fakhoora’s Dynamic Futures program allocates 10% of the scholarship intake quota as a part of giving those young people the access of higher education. Poor families in Gaza can find the pursuit of higher education an unrewarding investment, and many of the local universities are not disability-accessible, with a lack of resources to accommodate different disabilities, particularly visual disability. This has prevented access to higher education for many students with disabilities.
Neda says “When I was awarded the scholarship, I could not believe it, who could really support me, my father’s financial situation was not giving me priority to send me to university.”
Neda began her studies at Al Azhar University, studying History with a minor in Education, “I wish to a be a teacher, this has been a dream my whole life – Now I feel I am walking in the track of success, finishing my second year in university.” Still Neda’s studies have been very challenging; Al Fahkoora’s Dynamic Futures has provided her with a laptop to enable a larger presentation of her learning materials.
When Al Fakhoora and UNDP’s DEEP poverty reduction team visited Neda’s family, they were identified as falling below poverty lines. The father, Wael, has not worked regularly since 1990, when he was a worker in a floor tile factory across the border in Israel, but with the closure of the borders by Israel, he lost access to his job, along with 200,000 other Palestinian workers. In Gaza, he found no chance of doing the same work that he used to do. He says “Small floor tile factories in Gaza, pay $100 to $150 a month, which is not enough to support my family. I worked for a couple of years at this rate, but then I was not able to continue, I started to have partial work here and there.”
The DEEP team found that Wael’s oldest son, Mohammed, was struggling to finish his diploma in business Administration; but he had gained the basic skills of running a business. The family identified running a grocery store as their business of choice, particularly because they had an empty store in their house, which is actually located in a very strategic location between three schools in a highly populated area.
Financial records, from Mohammed, the eldest son, have shown a stable monthly income between $600 and $700. Mohammed says proudly “I am very good at this, I calculate 10% of my turnover as net income – we spend 80 % for the family living, and 20% is reinvested.”
Neda’s second sister was able to enroll in university in September 2012 to study for her diploma at the University College of Applied Sciences.
“We are so happy with our business. I share the management with my eldest son and the business has been growing very well. It has saved the family from hard living. Having my kids go to university is unbelievable for me; I never thought they would have this chance. I just pray to Allah that my kids recover from their medical problem – nowadays, we are much optimistic for a better future for the whole family” finished Wael.
