West Bank and Gaza

Blog Post:  Posted June 29, 2010, 9:54 am by Mirjam Hendrikse

VIDEO: For the Children of Gaza

Country: West Bank/Gaza

Topics: Youth, Conflict & War, Children

Since February 2009, immediately after Operation Cast Lead, Mercy Corps in Gaza has been implementing a comprehensive psychosocial programme funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID). The programme provided emergency psychosocial assistance to over 20,000 children, youth, and family members across the Gaza Strip.

During the final months of the programme, the Mercy Corps psychosocial team expressed an eagerness to show a larger public the activities that were being implemented and the impact that these activities were having on (the behaviour of) children and families affected by the Gaza War. At the same time, Maurice Jacobsen, an American independent filmmaker, walked into our Gaza office and asked if we were interested in working together to make sure that stories about people’s life in Gaza were shared with the rest of the world.

Our partnership resulted in a 25-minute video following five children as they participate in our programme and go through the journey of self-discovery and healing.

Here is the 6-minute abbreviated version, posted on our YouTube site:

And here is the 25-minute version, posted on a free video site that contains ads:

The story is told through the eyes of Roba, Soad, Abeer, Monzer and Hala. They are young Gazans, between the ages of 12 and 15, who live with their families in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. Using the Comfort for Kids (C4K) workbook as a focal point, the children all share information about their lives with us. While they are telling their story, their homes are visited, their parents or neighbours interviewed, their participation in the psychosocial support sessions shown.

The psychosocial programme ended successfully in March 2010. But the video illustrates the continuous need for our activities. It illustrates the importance of the programme, as well as its impact and effectiveness.

Blog Post:  Posted June 25, 2010, 3:37 pm by Mirjam Hendrikse

'I wish I was like the rest of the children in the world'

Country: West Bank/Gaza

Topics: Children, Conflict & War

Roba wants to be an English teacher. Soad a lawyer. Abeer a psychological therapist, and Monzer a doctor. Hala has not yet decided what she wants to do in the future, but for now is determined to achieve the highest scores in school.

Although Roba, Soad, Abeer, Monzer and Hala have very different aspirations for the future, they have many things in common as well. They are young Gazans, between the ages of 12 and 15, and live with their families in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. Their daily lives have been profoundly affected by the Israeli military blockade. Through the restrictions on import of basic goods into Gaza, for example. Or the travel restrictions, as people are only able to leave Gaza if they obtain rare medical or religious permission.

Making conditions even more difficult in Gaza, the conflict between Israel and Hamas has over the years lead to many fatalities (including children). A large number of homes and schools was destroyed. Roba, Soad, Abeer, Monzer and Hala have all been exposed to violence and injury. They grew up deprived of the basic requirements needed for life.

And there is something else that Roba, Soad, Abeer, Monzer and Hala have in common. They all participated in Mercy Corps psychosocial programme, attending guided psychosocial sessions over a period of at least six months.

Evaluation results show that the programme played a significant, and overwhelmingly positive, role in the children’s lives. Parents reported that their children demonstrated significantly fewer behavioural problems, and more positive behaviours, at the end of the programme than they did at the beginning. This enabled Roba, Soad, Abeer, Monzer and Hala to focus more on the future again, instead of remembering past events.

Roba wants to travel. She wants to study abroad and become the best English teacher there is. She also wants the border crossings to open “so that all the injured people in Gaza can receive the necessary treatment. I want them to be cured and come back to Gaza feeling happy.”

Abeer was inspired by the psychosocial programme and wants to follow in the footsteps of Mercy Corps staff. “I want to help children so that they can express themselves more easily. I want to help eliminate some of their psychosocial problems. Children should not have any worries on their mind.”

Hala wants the old days to come back, “when all the crossings were still open and people could go wherever they wanted to go. Including me. I want to travel and see beautiful places.”

Monzer is eager to help the people who are injured. “I want to make sure that families are not losing their loved ones. I want to reduce the pain that people feel and see smiles on their faces instead.”

Soad is dreaming of being a lawyer, so she can achieve justice in her society. “We are different from people in other countries, but I wish I was like the rest of the children in the world. I want to see other countries, be free to travel like everybody else.”

If you want to find out more about the lives of Roba, Abeer, Hala, Monzer and Soad, please watch our documentary For the Children of Gaza.

Blog Post:  Posted May 3, 2010, 12:57 pm by William Baron

Cash-for-work projects in Gaza – part three

Country: West Bank/Gaza

Topics: Livelihoods, Emergencies, Education, Conflict & War, Children

My last visit of the day is to a neighborhood after-school programme, where Mercy Corps pays unemployed graduates to work in after-school centres, supporting the learning of school children from particularly vulnerable households that are performing most poorly at school.

At the Beit El Kheir centre, I find myself sitting round a table with five 7-year olds, their math exercise books in front of them.

“Do you like coming here?”, I ask them, remembering my own aversion to any extra-curricular work when I was younger.

“Yes,” they chorus in response to the Arabic translation. And why do you like coming here? I ask. There is a pause, before the smallest little girl replies quietly, “because we want to learn”.

Their favorite subject, they say, is English (apart from little Rita who says Arabic is the best as it is easy!), but when I ask why they want to learn English they are temporarily overcome with shyness, so instead I ask Ramzi — their teacher employed through the cash-for-work programme — why he thinks its important children in Gaza learn English.

Without a moment's hesitation, and speaking in English perhaps to make sure nothing is lost, he replies: “So we can tell the outside world about our situation here.”

And after two days here I’m inclined to agree, that above all else this is perhaps the most important challenge for Gaza in securing its future.

Blog Post:  Posted May 1, 2010, 3:33 am by William Baron

Cash-for-work projects in Gaza – part two

Country: West Bank/Gaza

Topics: Livelihoods, Economic Development, Conflict & War

In the late afternoon sunshine, we leave a dusty alley in one of the poorer neighbourhoods of Gaza City, and are welcomed into a small sewing workshop by Ali, the coordinator for this cash-for-work team.

“Today they are making school uniforms,” he tells me through a translator. I hold up a pair of dark blue tracksuit bottoms that come up to my knees. Too small for a lanky European such as me, we all smile and agree, but presumably just the right size for the school children in Gaza who will receive them.

Projects such as this show clearly the duel benefits cash-for-work activities can bring, producing items such as school uniforms (or bread rolls from the bakery) that are then distributed free to the kindergartens and schools most in need, while also providing vital income for workers such as these.

Not long ago there were numerous clothing manufacturers in Gaza, but in the past couple of years most have closed down as exports from Gaza have been banned and they have lost their markets in neighbouring countries. Of the eighteen women in the workshop today, all had once worked in the tailoring sector, but now have no source of income and have at least five family members they have to support.

It is no surprise then, that when we ask the women how they find the work, they respond with nods and smiles and even a few grins and thumbs up. But, they quickly say — becoming serious and earnest once again — two months work is not enough and they need more. This is a familiar refrain that I hear time and time again throughout the day.

And this is the problem facing organisations such as Mercy Corps in Gaza. Contrary to the usual post-conflict and post-natural disaster scenario — where emergency assistance is followed by recovery and normality gradually begins to resume — in Gaza there is very little improvement and no return to normality, with the blockade preventing any such recovery.

Cash-for-work activities such as this ECHO-funded programme provide immediate and crucial relief, enabling beneficiaries to feed their families for today. But in Gaza, these same individuals will need the same support tomorrow, if they are to avoid sliding further into debt and hunger.

Blog Post:  Posted April 30, 2010, 12:39 pm by William Baron

Cash-for-work projects in Gaza – part one

Country: West Bank/Gaza

Topics: Livelihoods, Economic Development, Conflict & War

On Sha’af street in Gaza City, twenty-five men work in unison, clearing the rubbish and sweeping away the dust that clogs the side of the road. They're all distinguished by the white caps they wear. It is hard work — and dull work — but from their focus on the task at hand, and the smiles and laughs they occasionally share, it is clear they are happy to be doing it.

One of the workers, a man named Yasser who's around 50 years old, pauses for a moment leaning on his broom and tells me he joined the road-cleaning programme just the previous week. Until five years ago, he says, he was a construction worker travelling back-and-forth into Israel each day, but since travel restrictions were imposed on Gaza he has lost this source of livelihood and hasn’t been able to find work since.

Now though — along with 150 other men — Yasser has work earning around £9-20 each day, which helps him support his ten family members. It's starting to make a small difference to the quality of life for communities living in the area by cleaning the streets and planting trees.

“How will you use the money”, I ask him, “on food, rent, clothes for your children…?”

“Food”, he says immediately, with a shrug, “just food.”

Since the conflict in January 2009, Mercy Corps’ cash for work programmes have provided crucial income support for more than 8,000 Gazans like Yasser, who are unable to find work in an economy devastated by bombs and the blockade, and whose families are literally struggling to survive. The road-cleaning programme is just one of a number of different types of cash-for-work activities that Mercy Corps is currently implementing with funding from European Commission Humanitarian Aid (ECHO), with others including baking, sewing, fisheries and after-school support activities.

Over the past two days I’ve visited a number of these different projects, in each hearing painful stories of loss and struggle. I see gratitude and relief at the crucial help that paid work for two months provides, but also see only too clearly the underlying desperation of individuals struggling to provide for their families, and unable to control their fate.

I will write more tomorrow.

Blog Post:  Posted April 21, 2010, 6:03 am by Mirjam Hendrikse

Helping Gaza's children lead ‘normal’ lives again

Country: West Bank/Gaza

Topics: Youth, Marginalized Groups, Health, Emergencies, Education, Children

Mohamed Azaizeh is Mercy Corps’ Project Officer for the UK Department for International Development (DFID)-funded psychosocial project in the Gaza Strip. Mohamed joined Mercy Corps in February 2009 — immediately after the Gaza War — to take on a leading role implementing one of the larger emergency response programmes. I have worked with him since I arrived in Gaza a few months later.

With the results of the midterm evaluation report published a short while ago, and the project coming to an end soon, Mohamed is eager to share his experience with others:

“It has been an incredible learning process for me since I joined Mercy Corps. After the Gaza War, I was committed to support children who were suffering from psychosocial problems. It was my wish to help them change their behaviour in a positive way and help them lead a normal life again. With my background as an Occupational Therapist, this psychosocial project was a perfect fit for me.”

“In the first few months of implementation, I was not sure if our small team would be able to reach all our project goals. It was a challenging experience to work with 16 different community-based organisations (CBOs) in three different areas of the Gaza Strip. We worked with over 50 CBO facilitators to improve the psychosocial wellbeing of almost 4,500 children and their families. But together with my team members, and with the help of senior Mercy Corps staff, I believe we have made a difference."

"I feel that because all of us have the same goal, we are able to do what we do so well. The DFID project team is one of the best I have ever worked with!”

The midterm project evaluation report, published at the end of 2009, confirms that efforts of Mohamed and his team have paid off. Almost 70 percent of the parents of children attending psychosocial sessions reported that their children demonstrated significantly fewer behavioural problems — as well as more positive behaviours — at the end of the first project phase than they did at the beginning. Mohamed continues:

“Since the Gaza War, there are several international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) that are implementing psychosocial programmes. There are only a few who are implementing their activities by working closely with local CBOs — Mercy Corps is one of them. More importantly, we have a clear focus on building the capacity of our CBOs, so that at the end of the project they can do this important work themselves.”

“One of the highlights for us and the CBO facilitators has been our work with the Comfort for Kids materials. These were developed by experienced Mercy Corps staff in the United States, but with significant input from us in Gaza. It feels very empowering to be a part of such an important process and we are proud that we have played such an important role in the development of materials that are now used by thousands of children and parents in the Gaza Strip.”

The design and monitoring of the project’s impact, including the mid-term evaluation, has been undertaken with close and active involvement of the Institute of International Health and Development at Queen Margaret University (QMU) in the UK; an innovation that allowed Mercy Corps to learn from their expertise in this area. Mohamed describes the relationship:

“We have been very lucky with the involvement of QMU. With the Comfort for Kids materials being used for the first time in Gaza, it was essential for us to monitor and evaluate our activities in the best possible way. QMU has provided us with the tools and skills necessary, and helped us with the analysis of data collected. Mercy Corps is ensuring that our project team is learning as much as possible from QMU’s involvement. The organisation is helping us to help our own people. In future psychosocial projects we hope that we can do most of the monitoring and evaluation work ourselves!”

“The outcomes of the midterm evaluation demonstrate that we have reached great results. But it also shows us where we can still improve our work. Not all the CBOs that we are working with are performing in the same excellent way. We need to provide the CBOs that face more difficulties with additional support. This is what we have been working on in the past few months. I hope that the team and I will be able to use everything that we have learned with Mercy Corps in other psychosocial programmes.

"Our DFID-funded project comes to an end in March, but the need for psychosocial support in Gaza remains.”

Blog Post:  Posted February 10, 2010, 12:37 pm by Mirjam Hendrikse

Mercy Corps continues humanitarian assistance in Gaza

Country: West Bank/Gaza

Topics: Marginalized Groups, Food/Nutrition, Emergencies, Conflict & War

Failing Gaza: No rebuilding, no recovery, no more excuses is the title of the latest report on Gaza, one year after Operation Cast Lead, the three-month military conflict between Israel and Hamas. It was published by a range of international non-governmental organisations (INGOs), including Mercy Corps.

I am reading the report after another day of food and non-food distributions in Gaza. This week, Mercy Corps is distributing livelihood packages in Khan Younis, the southern part of the Gaza Strip, with funding from ARD and USAID. Last week, more than 750 families received packages in east Gaza. Next week, the same number of packages will be distributed in the northern area. After the final distributions, at least 2,450 Gazans will have received three bags of food and a carton of goods to support their often-large families.

But it is just a drop in the ocean. There are 2.4 million people in the Gaza Strip, of which many are in need. Besides, the food packages are expected to last a family only between two weeks and a month.

The blockade, imposed since 2007, has significantly reduced the volume and range of goods coming into Gaza. The shops are only selling a limited number of products and what is available is expensive. Not everybody can buy these items, especially not the hundreds of thousands of families who lost their jobs due to the damage done to the private sector in January. It happens almost daily, that I am being asked to bring things from the West Bank. The requests vary: from food, to medicine, to cosmetics, to spare parts for cars.

Since Operation Cast Lead, Mercy Corps has distributed a large number of food and non-food items such as rice, sugar, pasta, olive oil and burgul, kitchen utensils and hygiene products, as well as blankets, children’s toys and water tanks. At least 10,000 families throughout Gaza have benefitted from this support. It was hoped that by now, this type of humanitarian assistance would not be necessary anymore. Unfortunately the opposite is true.

The drive from today’s distribution site in Khan Younis to Mercy Corps’ office in Gaza City took only 30 minutes. In that time, I spotted at least five places were other (international) organisations were distributing much-needed goods to Gazan families. Flour and rice mostly; basic items that everybody should have in their house. Still, when talking to men and women in Khan Younis, people seemed most happy with the kitchenware and toys for their children that they received.

One way or another, it is a relief to see all these organisations working towards to same goal: reducing the suffering of the people of Gaza. Whether it is through the distribution of goods, or the publication of a report to urge the larger international community to take action as well.

Posted February 1, 2010 by Mirjam Hendrikse

Mercy Corps’ psychosocial project: Results one year on

Country: West Bank/Gaza

Topics: Children, Conflict & War, Peaceful Change, Youth

One year after Operation Cast Lead, the three-month military conflict between Israel and Hamas, people in the Gaza Strip are still struggling to rebuild their lives.

Since February 2009, only a few weeks after the ceasefire, Mercy Corps’ psychosocial team has made significant efforts to contribute to their recovery, implementing a psychosocial support project funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). The response of children and parents involved in the project has been overwhelmingly positive. Recently, a midterm evaluation, conducted by Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh (UK), confirmed the impact that these psychosocial activities have on children and their families (The evaluation report is available here).

Since the conflict Mercy Corps has witnessed the growth of fear, anxiety, desperation and depression amongst children and youth. In Gaza, the conflict, as well as the ongoing blockade, has brought about shortages of food, medical supplies and water, but the psychological toll is just as devastating. Children in particular, are suffering from a large range of problems such as fear of the unknown, disturbing dreams, headaches and pain. They are also very emotional and nervous and have difficulties in learning. Constant memories of painful events have been identified as affecting them the most. Parents, schools and other caregivers are often unable to cope with these issues and do not have the knowledge or tools to recognize and treat them.

Mercy Corps’ project therefore focuses on the provision of emergency psychosocial outreach to communities worst affected by conflict in Gaza North, Gaza and Khan Younis. The project provides safe spaces and psychosocial activities for children and adults, and at the same time involves the broader community in awareness raising sessions concerning specific psychosocial needs of children. These trainings also allow community members to access information and assistance about available social services. To provide this psychosocial support, Mercy Corps works with sixteen community-based organisations (CBOs).
During the first phase of the project almost 4,500 children attended psychosocial group sessions at the CBOs, while another 902 children participated in individual counselling sessions. Mercy Corps is using its own ‘Comfort for Kids’ materials to support the needs of these trauma affected children.

Over 770 adults attended psychosocial workshops, and 5,049 community members participated in 244 community gatherings, that provided them with training on recognizing children’s needs and ways to cope with trauma and depression.
Two key results of the midterm evaluation are:

• 69.5% of the parents of children attending psychosocial sessions reported that their children demonstrated significantly fewer behavioural problems, and more positive behaviours, at the end of the programme than they did at the beginning.
• Children who participated in the psychosocial sessions experienced the programme activities as overwhelmingly positive. They also valued the relationships they formed in the programme, both with fellow-participants and with the facilitators.

Building on the success of the first phase, and the outcomes and recommendations of the midterm evaluation, Mercy Corps is continuing its psychosocial activities with almost 5,000 children and over 4,000 parents. While the evaluation has shown positive results and clearly states the beneficial impact that Mercy Corps psychosocial activities have on children and their families, it also confirms the need for continued efforts with these groups of children as well as their parents, siblings and peers, in order to help Gazan communities cope with the ongoing trauma of their situation.

Posted December 22, 2009 by Ross Hornsey

Gaza’s civilians still unable to rebuild one year after Operation Cast Lead

Country: West Bank/Gaza

Topics: Civil Society, Conflict & War, Economic Development, Emergencies, Global Engagement, Governance, Marginalized Groups, Urban

Mercy Corps has joined a coalition of 16 leading humanitarian charities and human rights groups to highlight the Israeli blockade that continues to prevent reconstruction and recovery in Gaza.

A new report has been published today calling for more effective action from the international community to resolve this situation ahead of the anniversary of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.

The Israeli authorities have allowed only 41 truckloads of all construction materials into Gaza since the end of the offensive in mid-January, warns the report, which has been produced by Mercy Corps, Amnesty International, CAFOD, Christian Aid, Medical Aid for Palestinians, and Oxfam International. The task of rebuilding and repairing thousands of homes alone will require thousands of truckloads of building materials.

Little of the extensive damage the offensive caused to homes, civilian infrastructure, public services, farms and businesses has been repaired because the civilian population, and the UN and aid agencies who help them, are prohibited from importing materials like cement and glass in all but a handful of cases.

The blockade has also led to frequent power, gas and water shortages, seriously affecting daily life and public health. Parts of the Gaza electricity network were bombed during the conflict and require urgent repairs, which have still not been allowed to proceed almost one year after the conflict. This, combined with Israel continuing to restrict the supply of industrial fuel into Gaza, means that 90% of people in Gaza suffer power cuts of four to eight hours a day.

Power cuts also cause daily interruptions to water supply, as does the inability to repair water pipes, roof top water tanks and household connectors, because materials and spare parts are not deemed essential humanitarian supplies by Israel and so are prevented entry under the blockade. With the loss of pressure in the pipes, polluted water from the ground contaminates the supply. Together with chronic disrepair to the sewage system, poor water quality is a major concern for aid agencies in Gaza, with diarrhoea causing 12 % of young deaths.

The blockade, which began in June 2007 after Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip, has sharply increased poverty, helping make 8 out of 10 people dependent on some form of aid. Businesses and farms have been forced to close and lay off workers. An almost complete ban on exports has hit farmers hard, compounded by the offensive which wrecked 17% of farmland together with greenhouses and irrigation equipment, and left a further 30% unusable in no-go ‘buffer zones’ expanded by the Israeli military after the end of the offensive.

The report further argues that, while Israel has a duty to protect its citizens, the measures it takes must conform to international humanitarian and human rights law. By enforcing its blockade on Gaza, Israel is violating the prohibition on collective punishment in international humanitarian law, it says. The report calls on Israel to end the blockade, but it also calls on the international community to do more to end it. It urges the EU, for example, to take immediate and concerted action to secure the lifting of the blockade of Gaza so that the close of Spain’s six-month presidency of the EU in June 2010 does not also mark the third anniversary of the blockade being imposed.
The report’s authors also call on European foreign ministers and the EU’s new High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton to visit Gaza to see for themselves the impact of the blockade on its people. Securing an immediate opening of the Gaza crossings for building materials to repair ruined homes and civilian infrastructure as winter sets in would be an important step towards an end to the blockade.

Blog Post:  Posted November 21, 2009, 3:44 am by Seth Rue

We're all the beneficiaries

Country: West Bank/Gaza

Topics: Urban, Technology & Internet, Peaceful Change, Economic Development

Mercy Corps' offices in Jerusalem rest at the very top of the Mount of Olives, in a grove of olive trees that are hundreds of years old. Looking to the west, you can see all of the Old City and beyond and, at dusk, the sky is flooded with vibrant oranges and deep purples. The Dome of the Rock, in that light, seems to glow quietly from within.

When you enter the Mercy Corps office, you're greeted by a huge painted tile mural of an olive tree and a message below that reads, "Dedicated to Landrum Bolling — In recognition of a lifetime of work on behalf of peace and justice for the people of Palestine." It's a building filled with natural light that seems to pour in from every facade.

I was excited to finally meet the people I'd communicated with over the previous ten months, putting faces to email tone and style. That way, the next time I received a last-minute request for an executive's signature on an agreement or for a review and edit of a 70-page report to be submitted six hours later, I could picture — in vivid detail — the target of that day's silent grumpiness. Unfortunately, the staff were all charming and quite friendly, which made it frustratingly difficult to even set aside a bit of grumpiness for the future.

I settled in quickly and got right to work. My first task was to assist in the coordination of a major conference during which the aforementioned 70-page report would be presented. In the West Bank, Mercy Corps has been making use of funding from the United Kingdom and the European Community to spur development in the Palestinian information and communications technology (ICT) sector. The "Investing in Peace" programme helps to stimulate economic growth in Palestine by facilitating partnerships between Palestinian ICT companies and those across borders.

In preparation for the event, I was able to travel into the West Bank — for the first time — to the city of Ramallah. I found there some relief from the weight of the tension I felt between people in Jerusalem. Edges softened and defensiveness eased. I met enthusiastic IT executives and entrepreneurs, undeniable cutting-edge experts in their field, eager to engage in new partnerships with other companies. The spirit at the conference was surprising for me. There are so many external factors that have acted as impediments to the growth of the Palestinian ICT sector in the West Bank and Gaza, yet the people in attendance were anything but resigned to that. The questions they asked were challenging and rooted in optimism, and the responses — honest and direct — only affirmed their hope.

This was the first time I'd met any of our "beneficiaries" or actually seen where your donations go. Sometimes, at headquarters, it's hard for me to understand how the support of a generous public and the work of our dedicated staff end up actually helping anyone in need when all I see are numbers, statistics and stories about strangers.

On this day, something in my head clicked. Our "beneficiaries" have names and faces and pasts and futures on their own, and we're not responsible for any of that. What we are responsible for is listening to them when they teach us how to help them level the playing field.

Whatever injustice it is that has prevented them from being able to live in security or contribute productively to their communities, they've already identified and made steps to address. We can only offer certain resources and experience in similar situations and ask if they might be a good fit in moving forward.

I realized then that we're all the beneficiaries. But the IT executives here, the fishermen in Gaza, the young women applying for university in Iraq — they're our mentors.