Tastes of Gaza: Cooking and Conversation
Laila El-Haddad is an award-winning Palestinian author and public speaker based in the United States. She frequently lectures on Gaza, the intersection of food and politics, and contemporary Islam. She is also a policy advisor with the Palestinian Policy Network.
The horrific explosion that decimated the Karatina seaport Tuesday in Beirut, Lebanon has left thousands wounded and while the death toll continues to climb, the latest count is over 100. The country’s hospitals have already been stretched to the limits with COVID-19 patients, and coupled with the financial collapse, has been warning of shortages. Now,…
During Ramadan, KinderUSA provided fresh food to over 2400 families, approximately 19,000 children, women, and men who live in the most extreme conditions. One of our beneficiary family’s is Zahran, a father caring for 11 children who range in age of 3-24 years old. Though the eldest son, Ibrahim, graduated from College, he like his…
In case you missed our great conversation with Sari Bashi about freedom of movement for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, we now have it on Youtube! The goal of this installment of Talks on Palestine is to raise funds for our children’s summer project which will provide play and cultural activities to around…
With the closure of Lebanon due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the mobile library along with most projects being implemented in the region have come to a halt. Now, as daily lives suffer from the effects of the economic collapse and the shutdown, families are struggling to feed and care for their children. Our team has…
KinderUSA’s virtual Ramadan speaker series was a great success. Throughout the month of Ramadan, we had three captivating virtual conversations with Ilan Pappe, Juan Cole, and Dr. Mads Gilbert to help raise funds for Kinder’s Ramadan Programs that benefit the neediest children and their families in Gaza. If you missed any of the conversations you…
Gaza continues to suffer an ongoing humanitarian nightmare with no real vision for improvement on the horizon for the countless children and their families who live there. Three quarters of the population require some form of aid for survival, and the downward spiral affects every sector of society — from mother to child, from the…
In Gaza, the humanitarian situation remains dire with high rates of unemployment and crushing poverty leaving parents unable to provide food for their children. Ongoing violence and continued uncertainty with massive unemployment and food insecurity leave little hope for Gazan’s. This, coupled with COVID-19 restrictions affecting both work and school, leaves children more vulnerable to…
The coronavirus pandemic is worsening the vulnerabilities of families in Gaza, as it is here at home and across the globe. Struggling to feed their families, the economic shock from the pandemic has given parents few options. Many rely on aid from the charity sector or the kindness of neighbors. Our Country Coordinator in Gaza,…
An integral part of our Ramadan food distribution program is the Chicken Farming Women Empowerment Project. The blockade, now in its 14th year, coupled with the crisis we are facing globally has demonstrated women are affected both at home and in the economy. In Palestine, 20% of all female-headed households live in deep poverty and…
Tastes of Gaza: Cooking and Conversation
Laila El-Haddad is an award-winning Palestinian author and public speaker based in the United States. She frequently lectures on Gaza, the intersection of food and politics, and contemporary Islam. She is also a policy advisor with the Palestinian Policy Network.
The horrific explosion that decimated the Karatina seaport Tuesday in Beirut, Lebanon has left thousands wounded and while the death toll continues to climb, the latest count is over 100. The country’s hospitals have already been stretched to the limits with COVID-19 patients, and coupled with the financial collapse, has been warning of shortages. Now, medical facilities are in dire need of disposables, PPE, trauma, and surgical intervention. In the coming days, it will become clear what more is needed.
KinderUSA is partnering with MAP UK and Palestine Red Crescent Society to support the emergency responders who are using their medical teams, ambulances, and hospitals to help treat the wounded. Immediate needs according to staff on the ground include oxygen masks, intravenous fluids, bandages, suture materials, disinfectants, and more.
Please help us to coordinate this effort to bring relief to the Lebanese people who are quick to open their doors and hearts to those in need. Make an online donation today choosing Lebanon Emergency Relief. KinderUSA will keep you updated as information unfolds. Thank you.
During Ramadan, KinderUSA provided fresh food to over 2400 families, approximately 19,000 children, women, and men who live in the most extreme conditions. One of our beneficiary family’s is Zahran, a father caring for 11 children who range in age of 3-24 years old.
Though the eldest son, Ibrahim, graduated from College, he like his father and over 45% of the population in Gaza, women over 66%, are unemployed.
The family lives in a 3 room ‘house’ covered in metal sheeting in one of the most vulnerable and marginalized areas of Rafah where there is no infrastructure or functioning sewage network. Dangerously close to the border, Zahran worries daily for his children playing outside for fear of becoming a target.
Unable to feed his family, Zahran worked the fields in agriculture in exchange for food, but he lost this job when Coronavirus impacted the area, closing most of the economy. He now survives on $40 a month of food aid along with modest funds from the Social Development ministry.
“I do my best to provide for my children, especially buying diapers which cost $50 per month, that requires a special budget but, I feel helpless because I have no incomes. The food for Ramadan allowed me to provide healthy food for my children and not borrow money for one month.”
Zahran has expressed his gratitude but looks to the future and how they will manage. “God willing, we will find work soon. For now, thank you to all who keep us in their prayers.”
KinderUSA wishes all our donors a peaceful, happy, Eid al Adha and that you are rewarded for the sacrifices you have made and continue to make along with the good deeds you do for the children and families we serve. Eid Mubarak!
In case you missed our great conversation with Sari Bashi about freedom of movement for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, we now have it on Youtube!
The goal of this installment of Talks on Palestine is to raise funds for our children’s summer project which will provide play and cultural activities to around 1400 children throughout 7 areas of Gaza. Please consider donating, $20 will support a child for the whole program and $10 will support them for one month. Your donation, no matter how big or small makes a difference in the lives of the children of Palestine!
During the summer program, children will participate in soccer, basketball, Debkeh, mural painting, writing, poetry, and more! The program also brings in 10 members of the youth to implement and coordinate the activities providing them with a small stipend. Our team is taking all the necessary precautions to ensure proper safety procedures are being implemented and taking this opportunity to teach the children about safe hygiene in the time of the coronavirus.
Help us reach as many children as possible! As always, we value your support and consistent dedication to the children of Palestine!
With the closure of Lebanon due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the mobile library along with most projects being implemented in the region have come to a halt. Now, as daily lives suffer from the effects of the economic collapse and the shutdown, families are struggling to feed and care for their children.
Our team has regrouped and the mobile library will be back on the road distributing food, PPE, and storytelling for Lebanese, Palestinian, and Syrian children in the Bekaa and Tyr areas. The team will purchase food based upon what is available locally, providing sandwiches or za’atar bread with a beverage, to distribute to the children, encouraging them to attend.
Activities will be held outdoors, weather permitted, or in large open spaces to ensure social distancing, taking every precaution. You can further our activities with a donation of $10, $20, $50, or whatever you can give.
These are unprecedented times for all of us hitting vulnerable children the hardest. Your support will help protect children with proper hygiene supplies, nourish them with local food while keeping them active through learning.
All of us at KinderUSA remain convinced that our shared humanity and commitment to one another will continue to put children’s needs first. Thank you.
KinderUSA’s virtual Ramadan speaker series was a great success. Throughout the month of Ramadan, we had three captivating virtual conversations with Ilan Pappe, Juan Cole, and Dr. Mads Gilbert to help raise funds for Kinder’s Ramadan Programs that benefit the neediest children and their families in Gaza. If you missed any of the conversations you can view them on our YouTube Page.
Be sure to tune in for the start of our new live conversation series, Talks on Palestine, as we kick off with Huwaida Arraf, Saturday, June 27th at 6 PM PT/9 PM ET.
While the event is free, registration is required.
Gaza continues to suffer an ongoing humanitarian nightmare with no real vision for improvement on the horizon for the countless children and their families who live there. Three quarters of the population require some form of aid for survival, and the downward spiral affects every sector of society — from mother to child, from the farmer to the fisherman. This manmade humanitarian crisis and the insidious process of de-development of Gaza is shaped by the ongoing, illegal blockade of land, air, and sea. The end result: more than half of Gaza’s 2 million souls, including 400,000 children, live below the poverty line.
Increasing hardships find families selling their modest possessions to survive, with those who no longer have items for sale incurring debt at local stores and borrowing money from relatives and friends just to put food on the table. When even these stopgap measures prove futile, many families move in together to pool their resources, no doubt contributing to increasing levels of societal stress.
One beneficiary of KinderUSA’s recent Ramadan food distribution is Ibrahim, the head of an extended family of 12 who reside in a poorly constructed shelter of metal sheeting. Their very existence resembles a heartbreaking snapshot from a bygone era; in this age of technological wonder and abundance, just across the border from a “start-up nation”, Ibrahim and his family survive with no running water and use wood to cook their meager meals. Najlaa’, the woman of the house, reports that the family must collect the wood from the border, “which puts us at risk, but we have no choice. I don’t have a kitchen, and I don’t have a gas stove like most women in the world!”
At the close of Ramadan, KinderUSA met its goal and even extended the food distribution, providing aid to 2400 families in desperate need. What this means is that the children of Palestine we serve can count on you even in the face of a global pandemic and in times of national crisis. For these innocent children, it means that they are not forgotten by the rest of humanity.
It will take all of us working together, vigilantly, to combat the profound inequalities facing so many children across the globe. At KinderUSA, we’re grateful that you have our backs.
Thank you for your continued support, and may God continue to bless you for your compassion and generosity.
In Gaza, the humanitarian situation remains dire with high rates of unemployment and crushing poverty leaving parents unable to provide food for their children. Ongoing violence and continued uncertainty with massive unemployment and food insecurity leave little hope for Gazan’s. This, coupled with COVID-19 restrictions affecting both work and school, leaves children more vulnerable to nutritional needs and mental health concerns.
Zahran, a father caring for 11 family members, lives in Rafah near the ‘buffer zone’ with limited infrastructure in a makeshift home consisting of 3 rooms assembled with metal sheeting. Three of Zahran’s children are physically impaired requiring ongoing therapy and medication. Initially working in construction helped to bring food and medicine home but due to an on the job injury, Zahran lost his job then sought work in the agricultural sector just to feed his family.
When COVID-19 restrictions went into effect the first week of March, Zahran lost that job alon thousands of workers in the sector. Measures taken to prevent the spread of the pandemic has exacerbated an already fragile humanitarian crisis.
Zahran and his family are beneficiaries of the Ramadan Fresh Food Distribution including live chickens from our Women Empowerment Project, fresh vegetables purchased from small scale farmers, and fresh dairy prepared by female-headed households along with prepared mamoul (date filled pastry) as a special treat for the children. Enough food to last the month!
“We are grateful for this food you have provided. Each month, I feel helpless not knowing how I will feed my children. This month, I do not have to ask for a loan from the store or beg from the neighbors. My children have not had such good food like this in a long time. We cannot thank you enough. Ramadan Kareem.”
In the last days of Ramadan, our work continues. We are focusing on how we can address the increasing numbers of families in need that we were not able to reach. The COVID-19 crisis pushed numerous Palestinians into hunger with more and more facing a fate like Zahran and his family daily.
Thank you to all who have contributed to this important project and for standing with the Palestinian children. Our work is impossible without your support.
Thank you! KinderUSA’s virtual Ramadan speaker series was a great success because of you! Throughout the month of Ramadan, we had three captivating virtual conversations with Ilan Pappe, Juan Cole and Dr. Mads Gilbert to help raise funds for Kinder’s Ramadan Programs that benefit the neediest children and their families in Gaza. Your continued support makes that and much more possible. If you missed any of the conversations you can view them on our YouTube. And be sure to stay tuned for future conversations!
The coronavirus pandemic is worsening the vulnerabilities of families in Gaza, as it is here at home and across the globe. Struggling to feed their families, the economic shock from the pandemic has given parents few options. Many rely on aid from the charity sector or the kindness of neighbors. Our Country Coordinator in Gaza, Hana, said in a recent call that, “My sons have been doing what they can to help feed families in need. There are so many families without any food and they take from our home to give to others. The need is too great.”
Our staff on the ground are working tirelessly to support our implementing partners who are distributing fresh food for families in the most marginalized areas of Gaza during this month of Ramadan. Amin, a father of 7, lives in an area east of Rafah close to the border. He remains concerned for the safety of his children because of the frequent cross border violence. “Now I worry also about Coronavirus and how to protect my children.”
Their home is a single room with sand flooring. Unemployed, and living on less than $30 a month the social ministry hands out, Amin relies on food aid and often goes without just so he can provide essentials for his children. The family is a recipient of the Ramadan Fresh Food program and will receive two distributions during this blessed month.
“Thanks to Allah. Now we have enough food for Ramadan month. Chicken, eggs, maftool, cheese, and jam. Thank you all who support us!”
Your support makes our work possible and we know without it, the children we serve would suffer greatly. We also know that governments are using this pandemic to further restrict and control vulnerable populations such as the Palestinians. It will take all of us working together, vigilantly, to ensure that the profound inequalities facing many children and their families throughout the globe are not exasperated further.
An integral part of our Ramadan food distribution program is the Chicken Farming Women Empowerment Project. The blockade, now in its 14th year, coupled with the crisis we are facing globally has demonstrated women are affected both at home and in the economy. In Palestine, 20% of all female-headed households live in deep poverty and are unable to fulfill the minimum requirement for food and shelter. In Gaza, that number increases with over 70% of the women unemployed, making them the most vulnerable and marginalized.
Raising her 7 school-aged children alone while supporting her invalid parents, Shorouq is a single mother living in Gaza. Finding a job is virtually impossible due to her lack of education and formal work experience, especially being located in an area with one of the highest unemployment rates in the world. Forced to drop out of school at 11, she worked any job she could in order to feed her family, going daily to the agriculture fields to pick vegetables to earn pay in food and at times, a modest stipend. Living in Gaza is hard enough, but as a single mother, the hurdles are daunting.
Shorouq is one of 34 women participating in KinderUSA Women Empowerment Chicken Farming Project. After receiving schooling from veterinarians, tools, and all necessary supplies, including 200 baby chicks, the business is up and running and KinderUSA is her first customer. Buying live chickens and eggs for our Ramadan food distribution at an amount above market price gives the women in this program an opportunity to start caring for their families and put food on the table.
“With a steady source of income from the chicken project, I will be able to meet the needs of my family and work from my home. I can care for my children in a good way and provide all their needs, inshallah,” said Shorouq. “Every day we give thanks for this business and that my children will be food secured in Ramadan and beyond, which is my highest ambition!”
Our Ramadan Farmers Food Distribution is fully operating. The gratitude by the recipients for healthy food that sustains them during this blessed month strengthens our resolve to continue, and reminds us of how much we have to be thankful for with supporters like you!
Our goal this Ramadan is to reach 2500 Families in 15 of the most marginalized areas of Gaza. Please, commit to at least one Family this Ramadan for $130.
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