GAZA / KITE FLYING RECORD

Fresh from their basketball record last week, today (29 July), thousands of children in Gaza attending UNRWA’s Summer Games smashed their own world record for the number of kites flown simultaneously.

Over three thousand “UNRWA Summer Games” children had broken the existing kite record a year ago.

A total of 6,302 kites, made by the children themselves, were hoisted in the air in a well organized and spectacular public display, easily beating last year’s record.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Palestinian Girl No 1:
“Seriously, it is a beautiful that the UN gave us this chance to feel happy while we are under siege.”

On Thursday last week, over 7,200 children attending UNRWA Summer Games in Gaza bounced basketballs simultaneously for five minutes, doubling the previous world record. If, as seems likely, this is verified by the Guinness Book of World Records, it will be another record.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Palestinian Boy No 1:
“Last week we went to the airport for bouncing and we broke a new Guinness record, and this week we came here to set a new world record by flying kites”

For the past month, people from all corners of the globe have been invited to express their encouragement and hope on the website www.facebook.com/unrwa.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Palestinian Girl No 2:
“We thank the UNRWA and the UN for helping the children who are living under the siege to express their feelings and to have good times.”

UNRWA's Summer Games, conducted for the fourth year with the full support and involvement of the community, is the largest recreation programme for Gaza’s children, providing a diversified set of activities including sports, swimming, arts and crafts, theatre and drama.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Palestinian Girl No 3:
“I am so happy because we broke two new records in one week, and we raise the slogan: Creativity is not impossible, and we are children like other children around the world, we want to be happy and to learn, and for that we decided to challenge the world by breaking new records in bouncing and flying kites. I hope that we will win, because we have a strong spirit and we don’t know anything called impossible despite of the difficulties we faced, and a new generation will raise the Palestinian flag and always we will have a strong spirit.”

The Summer Games commenced on 12 June and will run through 5 August, providing 1,200 summer camps for over 250,000 refugee children across the Gaza Strip.

The games are made possible with contributions from the Finnish Government, the European Commission and UNRWA’s largest donor, the United States.