Feature: For first time, Gazans try to cure psychological problems of the disabled with music

It has never been rare that the disabled would encounter all sorts of psychological problems, and more often than not no easy solutions could be found.

Now, a group of specialists in the Gaza Strip have begun to use music as a psychiatric therapy in an attempt to cure the problems that are hidden deep down in the hearts of those who think they are different from the ordinary, but actually are not.

Shiren Wahiedi, a 16-year-old handicapped girl from Gaza, showed enthusiasm and joy while warbling merrily amid applause from her disabled colleagues who were also receiving music psychiatric therapy for the first time in the Gaza Strip.

Wahiedi and dozens of other disabled children usually go to the National Center for Community Rehabilitation in Gaza city for music therapy, trying to get out of their miserably psychological situation they have been passing through.

"I have so many talents, mainly singing and painting, so I feel very happy when I come here," she said.

Wahiedi suffers hemiplegics since she was born. She said the music therapy at the center helps her integrate into the community and the school she goes to.

As soon as Wahiedi heard about the center several months ago, she decided to come here, and try the special therapy. She said she used to feel isolated, but now she can live a normal life.

The girl said the disabled people not only in Gaza, but all over the world should practice their life normally and should play their roles in the society. "I hope our society would one day be able to change its opinion toward disabled and handicapped people," she said.

In Gaza, there are 50,000 disabled people, who represent three percent of the 1.8 million population. The rise in the number of disabled people over the recent years in the coastal enclave is in large part due to rounds of Israeli military campaign against the Strip.

Abdul Aziz Belbesi is 11 years old. He was injured during an Israel-Hamas conflict on Gaza many in 2009 that killed over 1,500 Palestinians. He later became hemiplegic because of his injuries.

For the past several months, he has been under the music therapy at the center. "The center and the sessions make us feel better and we never feel that we are disabled. I feel I'm as sound as I was born," he said.

Belbesi like playing drums. "After joining the center, I began to feel that we are all normal like other people," he said.

"I'm really glad that I'm here in the center because now I feel I'm doing something I like and something good," Belbesi said, noting that "Before I joined the center, I have been staying at home for most of the time doing nothing. The center offers us lots of activities, including music and painting."

Most of the disabled people who are at the center agreed that the psychiatric therapy by music and other activities is the best type of therapy for the disabled and handicapped people, because it makes them happy.

The therapists and musicians in the center said that the project is successful as most of the students can interact in the sessions and that they can sense positive results from the attitude of the children attending the music classes.

The project team has been working to provide opportunities for students to express their creativity.

Wael Abu Rezek, director of the center, told Xinhua that its program has three goals: therapy, entertainment and discovering children's musical talents.

"We want to form a musical band with these students to prove to everyone that people with disability can do anything," he said. Endit