Send Urgent Aid to Civil Society Groups in Gaza

We write this report as the famine has been officially confirmed in Gaza City according to the IPC (The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification) analysis and the intense attacks on Gaza City by the Israeli military have begun with an aim to reoccupy the Strip.

Since our last report in February during the ceasefire, we have seen the rapid deterioration of the situation – the breaking of ceasefire in March, the total blockade of aid including food and medicine, and the dismantling of the humanitarian aid mechanism by the UN agencies and international organizations to be replaced by the militarized Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

Amidst the worsening conditions, our Gaza partners have not stopped their work to support their community.  We have recently sent another installment of funds raised from our campaign (we pool the donations until they reach a certain amount), and below is their report from on the ground.

ATFALUNA SOCIETY

Atfaluna has been running the community kitchen to deliver daily hot meals to families with and without disabled persons, striving to provide food security under the extremely challenging circumstances.  Psychosocial support remains integral part of their work, and its child protection unit offers workshops, emotional aid, safe spaces for deaf children and their families especially during displacement and trauma.   Atfaluna also continues to provide education to 3,000 children integrating children with and without disabilities.  Atfaluna Crafts, their income-generation project, continues to runs workshops in wood carpentry, ceramics, and traditional embroidery.

The Audiology & Speech Pathology Unit has dramatically scaled up amid the war: screening over 36,000 individuals, diagnosing and fitting 1,700 hearing aids, conducting 1,358 ENT referrals and 1,204 speech therapy sessions, and distributing 10,783 hearing aid batteries.  They also provided robust early identification services that ensured timely intervention for hearing issues by reaching out to more than 12,000 children, leading to referrals for diagnostics and auditory brainstem tests.  Atfaluna would like to allocate our latest donation towards the audiology and speech therapy interventions.

SULAFA EMBROIDERY CENTRE

Sulafa has continued its craft production out of their locations in Deir Al-Balah in the middle area and Gaza City in the north, providing embroidery work to 471 women across the Strip.  Sulafa staff have managed to source fabric and threads from local businesses that still have some supplies available although the prices have more than doubled or tripled from before the war.  Sulafa is also working to repair their damaged facility in Gaza City, and intends to allocate part of our latest donations towards the repair costs in order to fully resume their activities.  Sulafa also plans to allocate the funds towards salaries and purchase of materials.

Your donation, no matter the amount, means so much to our Gaza partners.  Thank you for your continued support that has helped them sustain their work. 

We want to share the latest from our Gaza partners since the ceasefire took effect in January.  Both organizations have returned to their original locations in Gaza City, and are working to restart and rebuild their work while continuing to address the extreme humanitarian situation caused by the genocidal war.

ATFALUNA SOCIETY

Atfaluna is working to scale up their operation in order to serve more beneficiaries in more affected areas.  They have recently rented a building in Gaza City because their own building, which, prior to the war encompassed a school for deaf children, an audiology unit, and craft workshops and a retail shop, has been destroyed.  While rehabilitating their building, the rented premise will house the craft production space, a shop, service provisions such as audiology and education, and administration.  

Atfaluna is working to expand their core services to the deaf people across Gaza, such as the audiology, speech therapy, and provision and maintenance of hearing aids.  Atfaluna also runs 10 learning spaces for students across the Strip, and is working to double that number.

In addition, Atfaluna has been operating a community kitchen in Deir Al-Balah, which serves daily hot meals prepared by a chef with hearing disability to the families in the middle area.  They are now planning to open a new community kitchen in Gaza City. 

SULAFA EMBROIDERY CENTRE

Sulafa staff members have recently visited Sulafa's original location in Gaza City after returning from their displacement in the middle area.  While the building itself is still standing, the storage area was destroyed in the bombings and all the craft materials like fabric and threads have been lost.  Sulafa is now in search of local merchants who may still have materials needed for restarting their embroidery production.

The Sulafa team is also trying to locate their artisans, who, prior to the war, were working in embroidery and sewing through the network of women's centers across the Strip.  They learned that 20 of the women, including some of their best embroiderers, had been killed.  Some of the women were killed when their entire families were wiped out in the attacks.  Whereabouts of many women remain unknown.

WHAT THEY NEED NOW

Atfaluna staff tell us that their most pressing needs currently are the education programs, child protection and psychosocial support, which aim to give children a sense of normacy.  

Sulafa staff say that every family in Gaza has been devastated by death, injury, imprisonment of their loved ones.  Living in a tent or ruins of their former home, their challenges are compounded by the lack of income.

Through your donation, we have been able to provide direct cash assistance to more than 400 women through Sulafa, and funded the education and psychosocial activities of Atfaluna.   Thank you again for your generocity and continued support.

Links:

• Atfaluna Society Facebook
• Atfaluna Society Instagram
• Sulafa Embroidery Centre Facebook