January 2022 – جمعية إعمار للتنمية والتأهيل

Within the framework of cooperation and networking with institutions and donors, the Emaar Association for Development and Rehabilitation participated in the KMS Action Summit “Being a Khalifa: Your Role For a Better Today,” in cooperation and networking with the Malaysian Mara Seremban College. Emaar Asociation was represented by the Chairman of the Board, Dr. Ramy Al-Ghamry, and the association’s project team.

Dr. Al-Ghamry stated that the association is a model for the active civil institutions in the Gaza Strip and represents a success story for civil and humanitarian work in Palestine. The association shared a worksheet showing the stages of development of Emaar since its inception and the association’s most important milestones. The association’s management took the most critical procedures, and steps are to overcome the obstacles encountered in its work through excellence in creative ideas that touch the needs of citizens, especially in the Gaza Strip. Also, the participation of the youth and volunteers are part of the success of the work process in the association and ensuring the institutionalization of work within it.

It is worth noting that the association’s participation was also represented by a video presentation and media materials for its most prominent achievements.

For his part, Mr. Iqbal Azizi, one of the summit organizers, said that the Emaar Association represents a success story that all Islamic and Arab institutions should follow as an effective and constructive model. The summit participants also expressed their admiration for the services and programs provided by the association to citizens in the Gaza Strip, the continuity of these services for more than 16 years, and how the association was able to maintain continuity and permanence despite the difficulties and obstacles it faced during the previous years.

At the end of the meeting, Dr. Rami on the belief of the Emaar Development and Rehabilitation Department in the necessity of strengthening relations between civil society institutions in the Gaza Strip and effective institutions, mainly Islamic and Arab institutions, and activating the role of youth across the world, especially Palestinian youth, to contribute to achieving empowerment and improving the living conditions of citizens in general and the Palestinian citizen in particular.

The Basma Center for Audiology and Speech Therapy, affiliated with the Emaar Association for Development and Rehabilitation, has begun implementing the Qatar Red Crescent Foundation-funded project: audio detection and early intervention for hearing impairment in newborns in Gaza.

Basma Center began conducting audiological examinations for children who were transferred from the project’s targeted clinics, according to Emaar’s Deputy Director-General, Emad Esleem.

Emaar is collaborating with five of the ten clinics chosen for this project. These clinics are distributed evenly between government and UNRWA clinics across the Gaza Strip’s governorates, mainly the central region, Khan Younis and Rafah. According to Esleem, there will be audiological examinations for newborns who have hearing issues during their initial examination at the clinic. These examinations are taken place during the newborn’s first week of vaccinations. If the examination results are negative, the child is transferred to Emaar to undergo more accurate and consistent tests in a more specialized environment with more advanced devices, such as the auditory brainstem response (ABR), to determine whether or not they have hearing problems.

Esleem confirmed that hearing aids will be installed behind the children’s ears in the future phases of the project for those who are found to have hearing loss. The project also includes audio-verbal rehabilitation sessions for the children and their families, hearing aid programming and follow-up sessions, several awareness sessions, and the distribution of a set of educational brochures on hearing problems.