Right To Play in the Palestinian Territories

Since 2003, Right To Play has worked closely with local partners, including teachers, parents, caregivers, peer agencies, community-based organizations, government ministries, and U.N. agencies, to deliver high-quality education and psychosocial support programs for children and youth in Gaza and the West Bank.

We began our work in the West Bank in 2003 and in Gaza in 2009, focusing on supporting children in refugee camps to access learning opportunities and helping youth in local communities realize their leadership potential. Today, our programs ensure that children in Gaza and the West Bank have access to high-quality, play-based primary education and receive essential psychosocial support.

In 2023, we reached more than 97,000 children, including more than 53,000 girls, 21,000 children experiencing displacement, and 500 children with disabilities.

Right To Play Palestinian Territories’ 2024-26 program priorities

• Creating safe, inclusive learning spaces by renovating schools and community centres to support all children, especially girls and children with disabilities;
• Providing psychosocial support through structured play-based activities that help children cope with trauma and build resilience;
• Ensuring continued learning in times of crisis through catch-up classes, emergency preparedness, and life-saving safety education;
• Training teachers, facilitators, and school leaders in play-based teaching approaches, social-emotional learning, and crisis response;
• Supporting parents and caregivers with playful parenting strategies that promote children’s learning and emotional well-being;
• Strengthening child protection systems, including disability-inclusive approaches and referrals to specialized services;
• Building the capacity of local partners to deliver inclusive, play-based programming and influence child-focused policies;
• Supporting education authorities to embed play-based learning in recovery plans and national education policies.

Challenges and Opportunities in the Palestinian Territories

Children and youth in the Palestinian Territories face immense challenges. The West Bank and Gaza Strip have been under military occupation for more than 50 years, and residents have experienced violence, restrictions in movement, displacement and blockades. Most recently, the escalation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel since October 2023, along with growing settler violence in the West Bank, has created an unstable environment that severely limits children’s access to basic rights such as education, health, food and clean water.

Constant exposure to violence and uncertainty has led to alarmingly high rates of mental health challenges among children and youth in the region. According to UNICEF, 1.2 million children in Gaza need mental health and psychosocial support for depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. However, access to mental health services is extremely limited.

The education system is also under severe strain. The majority of schools in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, and many schools in the West Bank have also sustained damage. Repairs and rebuilding will take years. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of students are out of school, and experiencing growing learning loss from which it will take years to recover.

Urgent action is needed to provide children with psychosocial support and access to quality education in safe and supportive environments that help them overcome trauma and return to learning.

Key Facts:

• As of 2025, more than 3.3 million people – 70% of them children and youth – require humanitarian assistance in Gaza and the West Bank;
• More than 80% of schools and all educational facilities in Gaza have been damaged;
• School attendance in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has dropped by 25% due to increased violence and movement restrictions;
• About 658,000 children in Gaza have missed a full school year, and risk missing a second;
• Nearly 1.2 million children in Gaza need urgent psychosocial support due to loss, fear, and long-term stress.

Key Activities and Impact

Since 2023, our team has been focused on providing the supplies, safe spaces, and support children need to cope with trauma and continue learning. Donations to our Children’s Emergency Fund have enabled our teams to provide children and families in Gaza and the West Bank with hygiene kits, warm clothing, and play and learning materials. We have also offered play-based psychosocial support sessions that help children cope with fear and anxiety, support their emotional well-being, and improve their ability to learn in difficult conditions.

In Gaza, the Health Cluster has deemed managing access to mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) services as a priority action. The Circle of Hope program will support children aged five to 12 in Gaza by providing play-based psychosocial support as well as opportunities to develop literacy and numeracy skills. The program will also equip children and their parents with life-saving skills to help them cope in crisis situations.

Between 2019 and 2025, our teams helped children in conflict-affected communities in Gaza to have better access to inclusive education through the Enhancing Quality and Inclusive Education (EQIE) project, with support from Norway. Primary students in grades one to four, including many children with disabilities, were able to enroll in school and develop literacy and life skills. Our teams transformed classrooms into inclusive and playful learning spaces and trained teachers and education officials on how to create safe and engaging learning environments. We also trained primary school teachers in how to support students’ learning outcomes with gender-responsive, play-based lessons thanks to the Towards Gender-Responsive and Empowering Education for Girls and Boys in the West Bank and Gaza (TOGETHER/MA’AN) project, funded by Global Affairs Canada.

We are now building on this work with a new phase of the EQIE program that will strengthen local partners' ability to deliver play-based literacy, psychosocial support, and psychological first aid in safe, non-formal learning spaces. Our goal is to help children heal, develop emotional resilience, and support their literacy and other foundational learning skills.

“We learned how to turn our negative energy into positive energy. We released a lot of our stress in the psychosocial support activities.” – Salma, 9

Key Supporters and Partners

We collaborate with the Government through the Ministry of Education and Higher Education to implement our programs.

Our work is made possible with generous support from donors, including Norway and AFAS Foundation.

We also work closely with United Nations agencies, key implementing organizations, and coordination platforms—such as the Education and Child Protection Clusters—to deliver impactful programs that create lasting change.

Country Office Address

Al Attari Building No. 67, 3rd floor.
Nile Street, Al Tireh, Ramallah

Tel: +970 22975733