Aid access in Gaza: How are DEC charities meeting the needs?
Getting help to people when disaster strikes is challenging, not least when the crisis is as fast-moving and catastrophic as it is Gaza right now.
The scale of need is overwhelming. Food and clean water are desperately scarce, disease is rife, and more than 42,000 people have been killed. There is a critical shortage of medical care for the sick and injured, and no one can escape the trauma of daily life in a conflict zone.
Extremely limited access due to the ongoing conflict and closed borders means aid agencies are finding it exceptionally difficult to get urgently needed supplies to those who need it most. Each time a family flees, they’re forced to leave everything behind; many running for their lives with just the clothes on their backs. They start again with nothing, and the vicious cycle continues.
So how is aid getting through to those who need it?
Wherever possible, member charities have been working with suppliers within Gaza. Unfortunately, a lot of humanitarian warehouses have been damaged or destroyed, and many roads are impassable. Only a limited number of trucks are able to pass into Gaza from various locations in the region, carrying supplies like food, shelter kits and hygiene items.
However not all aid provided is physical, cash transfers can help people within Gaza purchase commercial goods available at markets, as well as supporting existing hospitals and clinics. DEC members and their local partners are also providing psychosocial support to displaced people, and setting up child friendly spaces.
Despite the extraordinary challenges and risks, DEC member charities have proven they are able to provide life-saving aid within Gaza. They are working closely together, alongside local partner organisations, to find ways to deliver vital humanitarian support in the midst of unimaginable suffering.
In desperately difficult conditions, our local partners continue to deliver vital aid, from hot meals to medical care, even in the north of Gaza. Christian Aid’s dedicated partners will carry on supporting families in Gaza for as long as it takes, and with support from the British public they can do even more.
- Katie Roxburgh, Christian Aid’s Programme Manager for Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory
Money raised through the DEC’s Middle East Humanitarian Appeal has already been used by Tearfund to deliver medical products including wound dressings and pain relief in Gaza, helping to provide health treatment to over 15,000 patients.
ActionAid’s local partners have reached over 117,000 people with food including hot meals, chickens, eggs and vegetable baskets. They have also been supporting at Al Nuseirat hospital and in Rafah where 70,000 people have been given health or medical support.
And not all aid requires physical items being trucked across the border.
Money raised through the DEC will also be spent on critical programmes like training mental health counsellors to help people cope with the trauma of life in a conflict zone, or giving money directly to families in Gaza to buy food, nappies, clothes and other essentials that have skyrocketed in price.
A Mobile Community Centre, supported by International Rescue Committee and its partner Nafs, is providing mental health and psychosocial services in the Gaza strip. It’s offering training, awareness sessions and recreational activities to help nurture the mental well-being of as many violence and conflict-affected children as possible.
