Expanding Aid as Gazans Cope with Shrinking Space
As the year has gone on, it feels like news coverage and international attention for Gaza have faded into the background. But crises like hunger, displacement, and a lack of clean water remain at the forefront of everyday life for the 2 million people who live here.
Humanitarian aid is a lifeline for many of them. If a bag of flour, tank of water, or bar of soap isn’t delivered by an organization like Peace Winds, too many families are forced to go without these basic rights.
Making matters worse, Gazans can now access just less than 50% of the land they could three years ago. This is leaving more and more people to shelter in increasingly crowded spaces with little access to health, sanitation, or hygiene services. Communicable illnesses, especially water-borne ones, spread easily. And all of this makes it increasingly less likely that Gazans already ill from malnutrition, many of them children, will ultimately be able to recover.
In response to the growing issues, Peace Winds and our local partners recently began hygiene support for evacuees across Gaza City. We are providing hygiene kits to children and teenage girls living in nine shelters–including soap, toothbrushes, and other toiletries, as well as sanitary pads. With the help of local community hygiene promoters, we are also running hygiene education activities.
This program joins Peace Winds’ ongoing work to deliver clean water to families sheltering in schools, tents, and other areas of Gaza City. Your support over the past year has helped us deliver millions of liters of safe water directly to Gazans who have lost their homes, and we are one of the only international NGOs still doing this in Gaza now.
“This water is priceless to us,” says one woman whose family has received water through the program. “It used to take at least 45 minutes to walk to the water station, and once you get there, you still have to wait in a long line. [Now] we can get clean drinking water just by walking two minutes. You have no idea how much that helps us.”
Your support helps us show families like these that the world has not forgotten them. Thank you for your unwavering kindness as we work together to bring relief to Gaza.