UN schools open in West Bank, Gaza despite US funding cut
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JALAZONE - Schools run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees opened in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Wednesday after it secured funding to offset cuts by its main donor, the United States.
The beginning of the school year had been in doubt after the United Nations Relief and Works (UNRWA) said it lacked funds to pay the 22,000 teachers in its schools in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, east Jerusalem, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
"We're very determined to keep these schools open," Pierre Krahenbuhl, commissioner-general of the UNRWA, told reporters at a girls' school in the West Bank refugee camp of Jalazone as students in pinstripe uniforms turned out for callisthenics in the courtyard.
