AFSC expands aid work in Gaza
'80+ The percentage of homes and buildings in Gaza that have been damaged or destroyed.'
The US Quaker organisation American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is expanding its aid programme in Gaza.
AFSC staff in Gaza have already provided life-saving aid to more than 475,156 displaced people in the areas of Deir El-Balah, Khan Younis, and Rafah. In coming months, the organisation plans to reach tens of thousands more people.
‘Recently, AFSC was able to distribute aid to the North of Gaza and Gaza City for the first time,’ AFSC says on its website.
‘Most of our food aid and supplies were procured in Gaza, but we are also sending additional aid through Egypt into Gaza when Israeli authorities allow it. So far, we have procured six trucks containing food, medicine, as well as blankets and winter clothes for families. More recently, we procured a seventh truck (containing mattresses, sandals, and underwear) to send through Jordan. We will continue to assess needs and adapt as needed. As conditions change, our approach may change.’
AFSC staff, working with partners, have so far provided: food for 475,156 people; drinking water for 63,858 people; hygiene kits for 2,270 women and girls and 200 seniors; and recreational activities for 17,862 children.
The work is delivered despite staff ‘facing grave personal losses themselves’, writes AFSC, describing the ‘unprecedented humanitarian crisis that grows worse by the day’.
All of Gaza’s 2.3 million people urgently need food, water, and other essentials, says the organisation. ‘Tens of thousands of people have been killed and many more injured. People are dying of starvation and disease. Most hospitals are shuttered and over eighty per cent of its homes and buildings have been damaged or destroyed.’
AFSC’s current partners include: Palestinian Early Children Education Program; Quaker Service Norway; Palestinian Children Relief Fund; Palestine Tomorrow; MAAN Development Center; Wasel Tasel; Mayasem; and World Central Kitchen.
AFSC is also in conversations with the Middle East Children Alliance (MECA) and the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) to explore ways of increasing aid distribution in the north of Gaza. With offices and staff in Jerusalem, Gaza, the West Bank, and Jordan, AFSC has been present in the Middle East since 1948 when the United Nations asked it to organise relief efforts for Palestinian refugees in Gaza.
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