Family Guided Home Construction in Gaza

Dear Friend,

Last month, Rebuilding Alliance’s four Community-Based Org (CBO) partners in Gaza selected the first four homes for Rebuilding Alliance’s Family-Guided Construction project. RA’s Consulting Engineer worked with our Site Engineer who met with each of the four families to determine their needs. Each family comes from a different region of Gaza and is in dire need of assistance: 

• Maher Q. lives in the northern Gaza Strip with his two wives, eldery mother, and three children. His first wife is disabled and has limited mobility. The home needs to be renovated to not only accommodate her disability, but to be a comfortable, healthy environment for the entire family. The kitchen, bathroom, and bedrooms must be renovated as they are not livable.
  
  
• Adnan T. lives with his wife and children in Al Shati (Beach) camp, the most densely populated refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, indeed in the world. Mr. Adnan lost his business and has been unable to work due to Gaza’s deteriorating economy as well as his health issues. After living in a single room in his parent’s home, Mr. Adnan's family was able to purchase this tiny home. It does not meet the family’s needs however as the boys and girls share a room together. The kitchen and bathrooms also need completion. The family hopes to expand their home to accommodate everyone, and provide a space for the sons to live with their families when they marry.
   
• Hamdan A. lives with his wife, mother, and eight children. The family live in Al Hashashin, a small village northwest of Rafah. This area is remote and has no businesses or schools. Mr. Hamdan is unemployed and relies on the U.N. and the Ministry of Social Development for financial support. The entire family lives, studies, plays, and sleeps in one room. Mr. Hamdan hopes to have at least one other room for the children to sleep in or to give his eldery mother a quiet place to stay.
  
  
• Salem O. lives with his wife and nine children in a small 63 sq.m. (678 sq.ft.) room in the southern part of Gaza. Mr. O. is in poor health and unable to work. There is no privacy between the boys and girls in the family. The family hope to expand their home by adding at least one other room so the boys and girls will have seperate quarters. 

Site Eng. Heba created a bill of quantity for each house depending on its needs. Where possible the extra room will be built on ground level but for those families that hold barely a postage stamp of land, we’re planning construction on steel-reinforced stilts — a remarkable, innovative, time-tested, and structurally sound approach that will give these crowded families the space they need. 

To complete construction of these first four homes, we ask your help to raise $19,658, just under $5k per home. Renovations will include adding electricity, plumping, tiling, additional bedrooms, and renovating the kitchens and bathrooms. Please join our effort in providing these families with homes that are safer and more liveable.  Let’s begin.