PALESTINIAN SOCIETY - Fafo

Housing and Safety
with Regard to Children
Perceptions conceming the physical safety provided by the house and
its surroundings with regard to children tend to mirror attitudes
conceming the relative safety of the world outside the home versus the
world inside it. In all cases the inside of the house is reported to be safer
than the outside environment, but differential perceptions conceming
relative safety come into play. It is necessary to take a doser look at
how Palestinians evaluate the adequacy of their own homes and the
security offered by its extemal surroundings.
It is on ly in Arab Jerusalem (tigure 3.6) that a majority of
households report that the local environment provides safe playing
areas for children. Notably, West Bank camp residents tind their
houses.some two times safer than Gaza camp residents. One reason
could be that there is a dear correlation between the human dens it y of
the house and perceptions conceming the safety the house affords
young children, i.e. the more crowded, the less safe (table 3.12).
However, perceptions conceming children' s security and the
areas in which they are protected from injury, do not necessarily
correspond to the realities of children' s injury. Respondents were
asked if any of the children in thehousehold 12 years of ageoryounger
had been seriously injured during the previous two months. Some
17% of households state that they have children who had been so
Figure 3.6 A vailability of safe playing areasfor children 12 years or
less inside and outside house in percentage ofhouseholds by locality
Percent
100
94
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
o
Greater
Gaza
City
Gaza Gaza
towns/ camps
villages
West
Bank
towns
West
Bank
villages
• Inside house
O Dutside house
West
Bank
camps
Arab
Jerusalem