Bethlehem, West Bank – USAID is launching a $702,679 initiative to respond to the needs of deaf children and elderly Palestinians throughout the West Bank and Gaza. Through its Emergency Assistance Program (locally known as Rafeed), USAID will provide hearing aids to 1,260 children and elderly Palestinians suffering from moderate to severe hearing impairments.

Hearing impairment is one of the most common disabilities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Untreated deafness can isolate and impoverish. Without hearing aids, deaf children perform poorly at school. Likewise, deaf adults struggle to find work and deaf elderly become anxious and depressed. Sadly, good quality hearing aids cost more than the average household monthly income. As a result, few Palestinian families can buy hearing aids for their deaf children and elderly relatives.

Rafeed’s mandate is to fill critical gaps in humanitarian assistance by responding to the most marginalized and vulnerable Palestinians. Rafeed will distribute digital hearing aids to disadvantaged children and elderly from needy, low or no income families in partnership with the five NGOs in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In addition to ending the silence from which deaf people suffer, this USAID-funded initiative will alleviate financial strain on 1,260 impoverished Palestinian families (over 8,300 Palestinians) and help them shift limited household resources to other basic household necessities.

Since 1993, USAID has spent more than $1.7 billion in the West Bank and Gaza to combat poverty, create jobs, improve education, build roads and water systems, construct and equip medical clinics, and promote good governance.