Dear Supporter,

Welcome to our December 2020 Newsletter, keeping you updated on our vital work.
 
1. Covid-19 Emergency Interventions: Supporting the Preparedness of Frontline NGO Healthcare Providers in Gaza to Respond to the Covid-19 Pandemic.
 
With the onset of Covid-19, hospitals in Gaza desperately required support to assist them in their handling and management of 10,000 patients who were receiving Covid-19 testing and in quarantine, and patients requiring emergency services and surgery. Gaza hospitals face very difficult conditions; with a lack of key pharmaceutical supplies and essential PPE equipment, a number of hospitals are turning patients away, unable to provide services. These hospitals urgently need provisions of PPE, medical equipment and medicines to help handle the crisis, with rapidly rising numbers of Covid-19 cases since August 2020.
 
This project provided vital PPE and medicines to 10 key NGO hospitals in Gaza:
Public Aid Society Hospital; Al Awda Hospital; Palestinian Red Crescent Society Hospital; Al Ahli Hospital; Red Crescent Society- Khan Younis; Patients Friends Hospital; Alkarama Hospital; Dar Alsalam Hospital; Palestinian Medical Relief Society Centre, and Saint John’s Hospital, and enabled them to continue providing essential services to patients in need of emergency and life-saving treatment throughout this year.

Project achievements:  

  • Medical teams in the 10 hospitals and centres were able to provide medical services, the testing of patients to determine if they have coronavirus and treatment.
  • PPE was provided to medical teams so they could perform their duties safely and keep their patients safe.
  • Patients were treated in a range of departments within the 10 hospitals: Emergency Departments, Triage Points, Delivery Rooms and Obstetric & Gynaecological Clinics, Outpatient Clinics, Burn Departments, Diabetic Departments, Ophthalmic Emergency Services, and elective surgeries were carried out.
  • Patients were given the medications they required, and vitamins they needed to improve their immune system against coronavirus.

 
The total number of medical teams directly benefitting from this project is 1,825 (875 males and 950 females). The total number of patients who benefitted from this project was 49,295 (22,607 males and 26,668 females).


2. Covid-19 Emergency Appeal: Humanitarian Support to Palestinian Refugees in Rashidieh Camp, South Lebanon.
 
This project worked to support 872 impoverished families in Rashidieh Refugee Camp, Tyre, Lebanon, by providing them with vouchers of US$80 to use in prequalified shops to buy key food and hygiene items. Lebanon was in the middle of a huge financial crisis and families were facing further hardships with no chance of even temporary work during the lockdowns and no income at all. As a result, these vouchers were a vital lifeline.
 
The project was a success, with a total of 15 social workers distributing the vouchers in the middle of 2020. The families were able to exchange the vouchers in local pre-qualified shops for key items of food and the hygiene items they needed, over a period of 20 days. As such, they didn’t all visit at once and they could avoid queuing and over-crowding, and maintain social distancing.
 
A total of 4,348 individuals (872 families) directly benefited from this project, including 505 males, 483 females, 2,467 children (5-17 years old) and 893 children under the age of 5.
 


3. Emergency Support for Gaza Farmers Livelihoods 2020-21

This project is developed on the success and lessons learned from previous similar projects and is working to rehabilitate and plant 88 dunums of land (1 dunum is equiv. to approx. 1000 square metres). 44 farmers will be equipped with all necessary agricultural inputs (e.g. seeds, seedlings, irrigation piping etc.) to return to work and restore their lands’ productivity and their livelihoods.

Activities within the project include: contracting local partners in the targeted areas; conducting needs assessments to prioritise 44 beneficiary farmers; verifying the rehabilitation works required and preparing the Bill of Quantities for required materials and services; providing the materials required for rehabilitation works following the procurement process and completing rehabilitation activities for 88 dunums of land, including clearing, ploughing, laying irrigation networks and planting seedlings.

The project began on the 1 October 2020 and will be completed by 31 May 2021.


4. Gaza – Emergency Winter Appeal 2020-21
 
Gaza’s 2.1 million residents are facing conditions of destitution. 80% are refugees, half are under the age of 18 and 70% are women and children.

  • Families in Gaza are facing the worst economic conditions in years and are struggling to survive.
  • The ongoing blockade of Gaza and three military assaults since 2008 have had a devastating impact, including massive infrastructure damage, a fragile health sector stretched well beyond its limits and a sharp rise in unemployment.
  • The rapid spread of Covid-19 in Gaza since August 2020 resulted in thousands of daily workers also losing their wages, as work stopped in lockdown. 8 out of 10 people in Gaza are dependent on aid to survive.
  • Winter weather can be extremely harsh with severe cold, heavy snow, storms and flooding.

Please help us to provide families with warm blankets, children’s winter clothes and Covid-19 hygiene kits, to protect them from winter illnesses and coronavirus.

 
* Last year our Winter Appeal (2019-20) was able to support hundreds more families than planned as there was an unexpected drop in the prices of winter blankets and children’s clothing as Gaza suppliers cleared their warehouses for spring goods. We were able to include 615 additional children, almost doubling the original number of beneficiaries to a new total of 1,237 children.

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