Visit September 2018

Visit September 4^th. – Day Visit

I went down alone as our three members of our team were busy and I went for the day only. As usual Sabah met me at the border. We went immediately to Fawyeh’s School as it is very near the border. The children were being entertained by Mario the clown who is terrific with the children. We pay his transport and each day he goes to one of our schools. The children having been only four days in school they were a bit shy and adjusting. Most of the children are new in all our pre-schools as kindergarten is obligatory only for the 4 and 5 year olds. Few parents can afford to send the three year olds now due to the increases poverty.

The second school, Zahar School, which we visited is in the Sagyeh area a very poor section of Gaza City. Last year we encouraged the directress to try to registered more children as they had only 40 to 50. This year they have registered more; the problem is that there are many Hamas pre-schools in the area where the children get free uniforms, school bags, transportation and such which this Zahar School cannot afford. We were disappointed in the disorder we found there; the classrooms had not been prepared for the opening of the school. New teachers were hired as due to the low salaries last year’s teachers went to other pre-schools where they received a better salary.

We visited two families both in the same area, and both are very poor and we brought with us a bag of food for each family. This month we are able to provide 200 families with a bag of food containing 14 items. The first family are seven, their home was very clean and orderly despite hardly any furniture. The second family are six with a very disabled little girl of 3 and ½ years old who is very thin. They family was very dirty and they lived very closely with other families who also were dirty. The child needs special milk and therapy. We tried to open them up to having the child put with the Missionaries of Charity who can study her needs with a pediatrician and provide better care for her.

I finished the day with work in our office and a visit to Sr. Delfina to ask her to visit or to receive the family with the little girl who needs care. She agreed. I was also able to visit their new building which is great that will be for the chronically ill both men and women.

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