Gaza Graduates Search for Vitamin W

By Mohammed Omer

THE HAGUE, Nov 12 (IPS) - "We fast a long time," says Gaza graduate Mona Ismail, 23. "Only to break our fast on a piece of onion."

She is speaking not of Ramadan but of the whole year, and year after year. She graduated in 'academic excellence in English language' from the Islamic University in Gaza. A prestigious course, and her dream. But now, there is no work she can find in line with her studies.

"I am now considering community volunteer work with organizations that offer English classes," she says, reached on phone from The Hague.

Gaza, considered by much of the world a troubled slum, has near universal literacy, and fine centres of learning. But then, no work afterward for most.

Women are affected more than the men. Large numbers of women graduates are now searching for simple jobs in kindergartens. Many of these are not officially registered with the education ministry, and therefore offer low wages, often as little as 100 dollars a month.

An education official says the kindergartens cannot be blamed, because they can charge only very low fees, and get little support from the ministry. "We are caught between shutting down completely and putting the kids on the street, or working in half-empty classrooms on minimal budgets," says the director of a kindergarten school.

Ruba Ibrahim, who graduated from Al-Azhar University three years back is now teaching in a kindergarten after failing to get a proper job in a public school. "For that I need Vitamin W," she says. By 'W' she means "wasta", Arabic for connections.

A tradition-bound society limits female participation in work, Wedad Sourani, deputy director of The Society of Women Graduates in Gaza, which has more than 3,500 members, tells IPS. "Those who are lucky enough to find jobs are discriminated against in the salary they earn – even if the female is better qualified than the male."

The Palestinian Central Bureau recorded a 41.3 percent rate of participation in the labour force among those aged 15 and above last year. That means just four in ten people 15 and above are in paid work. Female employment was 15.2 percent, compared with 66.8 percent for males. Regionally, it was 17.1 percent females in the West Bank and 11.7 percent in the Gaza Strip.

Some women graduates say it is not just women who are affected. "If this was true, I would have married someone who is employed," says fresh graduate Abu Obeid. "But male graduates are also finding it hard to get jobs."

As a male graduate says, "What is the point of having higher education when we have certificates hanging on the wall but no career."

Some students blame Hamas. "We are entering a very dark tunnel," says 30- year-old Samah Shakfah, who graduated recently after a nine-year gap in education. The siege of Gaza and the divide between Hamas and the Fatah- dominated Palestinian Authority in the West Bank has driven Gaza into deeper isolation with each passing month, she says.

"Had I known that voting for Hamas would lead to this siege, I would have advised my family and friends to save their votes for next time."

As unemployment continues to rise, aid programmes are not always a help, says Wedad Sourani. "Some international organizations stipulate goals and conditions that are not solutions to our societal problems." Money is often wasted on small projects in Gaza while the larger problems like unemployment are ignored, she says.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNWRA) has announced new emergency programmes to double temporary job opportunities for thousands of unemployed people in the war-torn Gaza Strip.

John Ging, operations director of UNRWA, says the organization has increased the number of temporary jobs to 14,000. Of these, 3,100 will be to support the struggling private sector, which Ging notes is on the brink of collapse due to the tight blockade that has meant loss of jobs for 120,000 private employees.

The new programme, he says, aims to secure jobs "for businessmen, ordinary people and those who want to support their families." The support includes payment over six months for removing rubble and rebuilding factories, and to service buildings and infrastructure damaged during the December- January Israeli offensive.

Samah hopes new programmes will include more women. "It's not that we don't have many female professionals, because we do. But we need a long- term solution to decrease unemployment in Gaza, and give us a chance. Just like the western nations who value the professional achievements of their women and try hard to utilise them in the appropriate field."

A survey by the group Near East Consulting of 1,300 Palestinian youths between age 16-25 in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Jerusalem shows that a quarter of Palestinian youths aspire to succeed in business, 23 percent with practical skills, 17 percent in engineering, 13 percent in medicine, and about 10 percent each in law and in nursing.

The study showed that 46 percent of Palestinian youth are living below the poverty line. A UN worker says "the youths who do get jobs are frustrated to not be working within their qualification field, and so many tend to join the military factions."