Julie Webb-Pullman: Kiwi Kindness Warms Gazan Nights

Kiwi Kindness Warms Gazan Nights

By Julie Webb-Pullman

The days might now dawn sunny and blue in Gaza, but the nights still have a bitter bite. Thanks to the generosity of New Zealanders, some of the poorest and coldest in Gaza will now sleep warmly, wrapped in cosy blankets courtesy of the “Kiwi Trust for Palestinian Children Relief” and the “Gaza Association of Educational Excellence.”

At a recent event for 30 impoverished families in Beit Hanoun, the “Gaza Association of Educational Excellence” distributed blankets and basic grocery items, purchased locally with funds raised in New Zealand by the “Kiwi Trust for Palestinian Children Relief.” The New Zealand charity was recently established in New Zealand by a group of Muslims inspired by a Beit Hanoun couple currently completing their postgraduate studies in Wellington.

“Thank you, New Zealand, you don’t know what this means me,” one woman told me through my interpreter. I could guess, though – this woman has two totally-disabled sisters aged in their 50s for whose personal care she is solely responsible, making outside work impossible – were there any. In the absence of any social security system due to a crippled economy caused by the Israeli siege, the three of them are completely dependent on UNRWA hand-outs.

Just one of these blankets costs the equivalent of nine month’s income from UNRWA. The basic cleaning products provided with the groceries are an absolute luxury when the choice is between basic survival or a clean room.

And one room is often all they have, with families of up to eleven people eating, sleeping, studying and living on top of each other as they desperately seek work, a career, a way to improve their lives.

Such situations present enormous challenges for school students – how to study, do your homework, even read your books when there is no electricity, not even a table to sit at because is there is no room, let alone money to buy one.

Beit Hanoun, a previously-thriving agricultural area hard on the border with Israel, is now one of the most impoverished regions in the Gaza Strip, subject to almost daily bombings and incursions that have destroyed most of its orchards and crops, and left the land unproductive, or unable to be farmed. The resulting unemployment has had a devastating effect on this community.

Salwa Ezaanin, president of the “Gaza Association of Educational Excellence” told me how she came to found the Gaza NGO.

“I was a teacher for 45 years, 25 years of them as headmistress of an UNRWA school here in Beit Hanoun, and I know almost every single family in this town. You see the children coming to school hungry, or sick, they didn’t do their homework, they can’t concentrate – when I was teacher I could help them at school, but when I retired I could not just leave them. So I founded this Association, with volunteer teachers and social workers, and we have classes and activities for children suffering from trauma, with learning difficulties, with psychological problems. We help them with tutoring for their schoolwork, and therapy for their problems. Also we have activities for their parents, how to deal with their difficult children. Through these activities we learn which are the most desperate families, and also through other ways, like the sisters.”

These networks led 30 such families to the door of the “Gaza Association of Educational Excellence” where they have gratefully received the gifts donated by generous kiwis.

Sadly, there are many more families still out there in Beit Hanoun, equally-desperate and equally-deserving.

If you would like to help them, you can donate by contacting “Kiwi Trust for Palestinian Children Relief” on 021 2022 476.

Thank you New Zealand

Happy smile

Put a smile on a Palestinian face

Salwa Ezaanin

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