Crazy Water resort receives the first group of children from the group counselling programme in Gaza

Gaza, Publication and Information Unit:

"Swimming with my friends was the nicest thing about the trip." With these words the child Ahmed Masoud, aged 14, expressed his happiness at the recreational trip he took part in with the child protection teams project at the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution last Friday.

For his part, the field coordinator of the child protection teams project, Rabie Hamouda, said: "We have begun carrying out the programme of recreational trips for more than 1,500 boys and girls in the Gaza governorates after the end of the group counselling programme."

Hamouda explained that the first trips set off for the project's children in the North and Gaza governorates, where they enjoyed acrobatic games, funfair cars, playing ball, swimming and singing songs at the Crazy Water resort in Gaza City.

He added: "Our project focused on completing the group counselling sessions so that children could exchange experience and knowledge and turn negative energies into positive ones, and become children who achieve within their homes and schools."

The field coordinator of the child protection teams project explained that this October will see the end of this series of recreational trips, after which we will work on starting a group of festivals to help children with psychological and emotional release.

It is worth noting that the child protection teams project, carried out by the Conflict Resolution Center, has been funded by the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, for nine years.