November 2024 News

 

November News

Sabah, who is the past director of our projects in the South, has given me the sad news that two families whom we helped have all been killed. We renovated their homes which needed proper bathrooms and kitchens. Maybe we did their windows, roofs, and flooring too. We feel so bad that these two large families are all gone. I don’t know the details of their deaths, yet know that it was because of the present war. Sabah lives now in Egypt with her husband and has regular contact with our friends in the South. 

Our team stopped helping the south at the end of October. It was a necessary and very difficult decision that we made last July. However, I have decided to continue helping by fundraising. After 28 years of making friends there and sharing their poor realities, I find that I do have the time to help if just a bit. The greatest need now is food, water, and medicines, but we can’t fund these items as they are not getting in. The trucks can’t get these items to stores or relief organizations. 

We’ve decided to help a refugee camp school of 150 students with the necessary school supplies. Sami, our last driver, asked us to help this school in his camp. We sent money to Sabah to transfer to a shop that has received school bags and other items that the children need for school. The school has five tents for five classes. The teachers, who were teachers before the war, come from the camp. They receive no pay. The children sit on the floor as there are no tables and chairs. Sabah received a receipt for the school supplies so we know that the money got to the shop and in turn to the children. We had enough money donated to give 120 of the 150 children the school bags with the school supplies inside. We hope that another benefactor will provide funds for the other 30 children. I will send you four photos of the children in their tent classes before we can help them with materials. Our past social worker, Wasel, continues to visit this school for us. She took pictures of the students receiving their new school bags and school supplies.  

Today rain has come and it is tragic. The sea has risen and has taken over all the many people in tents on the beach. Another overpopulated area is underwater also in this area of the South. These poor refugees have no place to find shelter from the rain. Sickness will surely follow due to the cold and the rain.

We all pray for peace especially as the Advent season nears.

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August and September 2024 News

 

Update for August and September 2024

 

I will continue to send you news every two months. This time I am late since it is already October and I am writing for August and September.

Recently I was able to talk by phone to Fr. Gabriel, the parish priest of the Latin Catholic parish of Gaza. He shared with me the situation there since I last wrote for June and July. I can add pictures at the end which show the need for water and food.

There are 400,000 residents in the north with shelling going on for almost a year now. People are killed and injured daily as they shell the whole Strip. They serve 2,500 families in the parish and also in the Orthodox parish which is not far from them. All are civilians. They also provide for the neighborhood Muslims and Christians. They are funded by the Latin Patriarchate. 

Sadly, there is little sign of a cease-fire. A cease-fire is critical because it would enable them to serve a large amount of food, water, and medicines. Many of the medicines for people with chronic diseases, like high blood pressure, cannot get in. They also need fuel for cooking. They cook three times a week for the refugees in their compound and neighbors outside their compound. Bags of food are also distributed every two weeks. They serve three meals daily to 2,500 people.

All are extremely tired as they cannot sleep nights due to the shelling.

The Pontifical Mission continues to serve the refugees in the north. They have a plan which entails working with other NGOs to serve more people. It will be attached here and is addressed to Al Omri who has been our main benefactor in the pre-war and post-war period. Much to our surprise, they too have decided to discontinue their Al Omri Relief Organization. Both our Daughters of Charity and the Al Omri emergency relief non-profit organizations regret that we are withdrawing from our assistance at this time of war. 

As we downsize, I am finding that I have the time to continue fundraising for them.  So I will continue despite my age and the current war in the north. Sabah, who ran our pre-war programs, is encouraging me with the help of our friends there who are refugees. We’ll see where this goes. May the Spirit lead us!

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Project: Gaza Emergency Response

 

Concept Note

 

Project: Gaza Emergency Response: Subsidize medical care, education and psychosocial support, food parcel distribution in collaboration with local partners in Gaza city and southern Gaza.

 

Submit to

Al Omri Kinderhilfe Palastina

 

Submitted by

Pontifical Mission for Palestine (PMP), Jerusalem

 

The war between Hamas and Israel – now passing eleven months, has decimated all of the Gaza Strip. Nearly 2 million people or 90 percent of the Gaza’s population are displaced from their homes, mostly living in tents or inadequate shelters. Months of living in unsanitary conditions, and no access to washrooms, lavatories, clean water and food has increased health risks and the spread of communicable diseases, especially among older age groups, pregnant women and babies. Efforts are underway by international humanitarian aid organizations to deliver food, medicine, WASH supplies and other means of support throughout the Gaza Strip. However, attacks and logistics are making it difficult to reach all those in need. Local institutions have reorganized and strategized ways to help deliver essential services to the population using stocked humanitarian aid and supplies available in the local market. With limited access to financial resources, institutions require the means to fund existing services to those they serve. Partner institutions in Gaza city and in southern Gaza have reached out to CNEWA – Pontifical Mission with requests to help them purchase additional supplies, cover salaries, operational costs that deliver and even increase, the services provided to the displaced, the injured and the traumatized.

PMP is launching a six-month emergency response plan that will financially back these partner institutions in Gaza city and southern Gaza between September 2024 – February 2025. The support will help these institutions on the ground continue to deliver medical service support to the injured and sick, enable children to have access to educational and psychosocial activities, support women and families in need and enable the continuation of food distribution to families without access to food.

Specifically, PMP’s response plan aims to collaborate with Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza city to deliver medical services to an estimated 1,200 inpatient and outpatients over a period of six months; partner with SPARK Association to deliver education classes and psychosocial support to 40 elementary schoolchildren in southern Gaza; partner with Society of Women Graduates who will support its network of 500 young women and 100 children in Gaza city, delivering psychosocial support and food for them and their families; and partner with AISHA Association to deliver food parcels to 1,000 displaced families and deliver psychosocial support for an estimated 6,000 children in southern Gaza.

PMP emergency response plan aims to reach 8,840 Palestinians including men, women and children who are displaced from their homes and have limited to no access to basic services in their areas.

PMP’s Emergency Response Plan with Local Partners, and the project descriptions, location and amount allocated for each project is listed below.

 

1. Al Ahli Arab Hospital: 

Ahli Arab Hospital is located in Gaza city and is operated by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem and the Middle East. After eleven months of war, the hospital continues to deliver medical services to the displaced, those who have sought shelter and seek emergency medical care in its inpatient clinic consisting of 50 beds which have extended to 80 beds, and outpatients service department in general medicine, surgery, Gynecology Obstetric, Urology, Orthopedic, Neurology, ENT and Pediatric services. It also has a laboratory and radiology department as well as a pharmacy and rehabilitation service center. The hospital continued to receive medical supplies, medicine and other forms of emergency assistance from humanitarian aid agencies, however the needs continue to be great. Al-Ahli Arab Hospital is one of only 7 hospitals operating in Gaza city and its surroundings. Currently the diagnostic services department is working overtime to assist people: to care for the wounded, traumatized, and those with burns and those suffering from infectious diseases and acute respiratory infections. The funds will be used to cover the costs of medical care for both outpatients and inpatients over a six month period. 

Location: Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, Gaza city, Gaza Strip 

Beneficiaries: 1,200 inpatient and outpatients 

Budget: $200,000

2. Spark for Innovation & Creativity:

SPARK is an innovation hub that provides Palestinian youth with inspiring, innovative and motivational activities that enhance their creativity and individual interests. SPARK believes that youth are an essential actor within Palestinian community development. SPARK adopts a participatory learning approach (PLA) in its activities that ensures youth involvement in their own decision-making.

Emergency assistance for Gaza project supported SPARK to deliver prepared food to those in need in early 2024.

With schools closed and limited access to educational activities in areas where SPARK is currently operating, it aims to launch a small-scale project titled, "Stars of Tomorrow: Education Now" that will provide comprehensive and supportive education activities within its network who have been affected by the ongoing conflict. The project will target 40 children aged 5-7 displaced in southern Gaza, addressing their educational, psychological, and social needs by creating safe, stimulating learning environments. There, the project will deliver activities that align with the Palestinian curriculum and incorporates global best practices six days per week with 3-hour sessions. Over six months, the project will also focus on curriculum development, staff training, and psychosocial support, involving families, teachers and local volunteers. 

Location: SPARK, southern Gaza. 

Beneficiaries: 40 children and their families, teachers and local volunteers 

Budget: $22,200.

3. The Society of Women Graduates (SWG) 

The Society of Women Graduates (SWG) aims to empower women graduates who face double marginalization and enable them to actively play a positive role in the development of the Palestinian community. As the only formally organized representative body for women graduates in the Gaza Strip, SWG thrives to improve qualities of lives of women graduates.With more than 49 years of working experience, SWG has forged many partnerships with international and local organizations in pursuit of its mandate and achieving desired change at the individual and community levels.

With the onset of the current war, the Society of Women Graduates had to reset its priorities to meet the current needs of young women facing very difficult circumstances. SWG seeks to support, empower and protect graduated women in the Gaza Strip especially vulnerable ones and those with special needs. Within SWG’s network of 500 young women and their families, nearly all are displaced and lack access to food. As a society that seeks to benefit women, empower them and through them, their communities, the Society of Women Graduates seek assistance to help provide women within its network (women located in Gaza city) food parcels to all members. Society of Women Graduates has also proposed to collaborate with 5 centers in Gaza city for the displaced, to offer psychosocial first aid, psychosocial activities and individual counselling sessions to 100 children. Many children are suffering from exhaustion, stress, anxiety while others have witnessed or experienced circumstances that require psychological support. The food parcels would be enough food for the children and their families. 

Location: Society of Women Graduates, Gaza city and southern Gaza. 

Beneficiaries: 500 SWG women and their families; 100 displaced children and their families 

Budget: $81,800 

a. $31,800 Psychosocial support (including food parcels for the children and their families) 

b. $50,000 Food parcels 

 

4. AISHA Association:

AISHA Association is a non-profit Palestinian women’s NGO that seeks to protect, support, and empower vulnerable women and children, as well as victims of violence by facilitating access to

protection and support services, child protection and MHPSS services including individual and group therapy and ensure that vulnerable communities and groups are protected. During the war, AISHA Association has been working in southern Gaza to help support the displaced and destitute. Its operations there have included psychosocial support and food delivery to people in need as they continued to struggle to secure daily necessities, leading to food insecurity and malnutrition. AISHA Association has developed a project to help alleviate these hardships by ensuring that affected communities receive essential food items as well as psychosocial support.

AISHA psychosocial sessions held in a displacement area in southern Gaza in cooperation between AISHA and CNEWA-Pontifical Mission in early 2024.

This project aims to provide essential food supplies to vulnerable families in the southern regions of Gaza, addressing the critical need for nutrition and support in the face of ongoing challenges. 

The project will focus on distributing food packages to 1,000 of the most vulnerable families, prioritizing households with children, the elderly, and individuals with disabilities.

Location: AISHA office and areas in southern Gaza

Beneficiaries: 1,000 families for food parcels; 6,000 children

Budget: $187,320

a. $100,000 Food parcels

b. $87,320 Psychosocial support

A table showing the estimated budget needed for the 6-month emergency intervention

No.	Partner	Program Cost  $	Euro Equivalent
1	Al Ahli Hospital	$200,000	€181,028
2	Spark Association	$22,200	€20,094
3	AISHA Association	$187,320	€169,551
4	Women Graduates	$81,800	€74,041
	Total for intervention	$491,320	€444,714
	Pontifical Mission contribution	$100,000	€90,514
	Third party contributions	$336,080	€304,200
	Al Omri Foundation contribution	$55,240	€50,000

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June and July 2024 news

 

Some important news to share!

With a heavy heart, I am announcing our termination of the Daughters of Charity Gaza Project on October 31, 2024. I will be 79 years old in a few months and my memory is not so sharp anymore, my energy level isn’t the same either. No one can take on this job of coordinating all as the other team members are working full time. I had always hoped that the Lord would keep it going by someone who would replace me. Yet his plans and vision are greater than mine. 

Our team met on July 7, and decided on the date of October 31. This means that we will finish giving amenities and salaries to our two women on this date. Donations that we have now and may keep coming in, will go to the Patriarchate which is providing water and food to hundreds of people since the war began. Alomri of Germany has been supporting the Pontifical Mission which is giving water and food daily. They have provided 80% of our annual budget for many years and I hope that they will continue to sponsor the Pontifical Mission. Our wonderful staff are dispersed. Sabah, who has been the director of our projects in G., is in Egypt with her husband. Wassel, our social worker, is a refugee, as well as all our friends. We have contact only with Sabah as she is out of the country. We feel very sad that our withdrawal comes at a critical time for the people. When peace comes, the people will have to start all over again with nothing. I encourage you to keep helping the starving in G. by offering your generosity to other reliable NGOs who can provide the basic necessities to people. We trust fully the two Agencies mentioned above who are helping Muslims, Christians, and all as they are our brothers and sisters in great need.

We four team members thank the Lord for the opportunity to have been in G. many times before the war. The poor have evangelized us. We thank God for those friends that we made and for those who helped us get food to families, often risking their lives during the cease-fire moments during the wars. They will still be a part of us in thought and prayer.

We thank all of you who have supported our efforts over 28 years to serve thousands in G  helping us to save lives and give quality of life to many. The Lord in His special way will thank you for all that you have made possible.

I will try to keep the website up to date until the end of December for all of you who want to keep up with the services given by the Pontifical Mission and the Patriarchate working in the two parishes. If you send us funding still by PayPal it will be sent quickly to one of these two relief agencies to give water and food to the starving. PayPal is free and you send your funds to my email address which is srssandpam@gmail.com It is sent quickly to one of the two relief agencies mentioned above.

June and July updates and photos

The Pontifical Mission which serves the homeless in the north is now giving water and food to over 1,000 people daily. Two parishes that are housing about 600 hundred to 700 people are continuing to do the same in the north. The north of the Strip continues to be the poorest region where the deaths from starvation continue for the weaker members of families. These are the elderly, babies, and the disabled. The refugees in the southern part of the Strip continue to be uprooted four to five times having to move to a designated area. With the constant shelling, these areas are not safe having suffered many casualties. Perhaps you have followed this in the news.

We do not need to continue to encourage you to pray for peace to come to this region of the world. May the Lord change hearts!

                                                                                                            Sr. Susan Sheehan DC

                                                                                                            June and July 2024

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May news from Gaza

 

May news from Gaza

Since we have linked our resources with that of the Patriarchate and with the Pontifical Mission I am sharing their news. They are right there on the spot feeding people.

The Patriarchate has a website which I am sharing with you now so you can check it out. They are is www.lpj.org and www.Vaticannews.va will also update you on things.

There are orders from the Israeli military for more residents of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip to leave neighborhoods east of the city. The UN says more than 80,000 people have taken flight from Rafah this week alone. They are to evacuate ahead of a major offensive. Sam Rose from the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees says the area has no running water or proper sanitation. He said the latest evacuation is ‘extremely concerning’.

Rafah crammed with more than a million evacuated Palestinians, has been facing a worsening of the dreadful humanitarian crisis due to the lack of basic supplies, including water, food, electricity, and medicines. 

The UN agencies highlighted the severe crisis in Gaza and stressed the urgent need for humanitarian assistance remains as the war goes on.

Pontifical Mission has been addressing these needs. Photos of food preparation and packaging show you how they feed hundreds of people These are in their website. Photos taken by our friend who is a refugee himself also show the sadness in the peoples’ faces as they search through the rubble. You’ve seen on the media the people fleeing part of Rafah many for the third or fourth time.

Pontifical Mission continues to serve food to 150 food packages for 150 families (840 people) in Gaza City in coordination with the Patriarchate. Food packages include basic food supplies including 2 kgs.(4.4 lbs.) of wheat flour, Tahini, 1 liter of cooking oil, 250 grams (8 oz. of Halav (high calories count food), and canned olives that will last one week. 600 families receive two meals a day. Packages of food go to another 150 families. Rafah in the south receives food packages via the collaboration with AISHA for 400 families.

Food is scarce and very expensive. Tomatoes went from 4 nis to 100 is. Onions, from 3 nis to 80 nis. A kilo of meat, from 35 nis to 380 nis, an egg from 2nis to 10 nis…

Other items given are medicines water fuel (to cook with), hygiene kits, and cleaning materials.

The great generosity of many of you is keeping the most fragile people alive in each family. Fr. Gabrielle of Gaza said that they have lost already 25% of the Christian population through death and a few through emigration.

                                                                                           Sr. Susan Sheehan DC

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Informations Avril 2024

 

April 6, 2024

This month I hope to have some new pictures from some of our friends in the South. You are probably well informed by the media as the situation deteriorates in both the north and the south.

In March we had hoped to partner with Pontifical Mission which works in the north as well as the Latin Patriarchate. We have succeeded in doing this now. They serve 250 street people who did not flee to the South at the beginning weeks of the war with the majority of the refugees. They have been cut off from food and water for over a month. Maybe you have seen the various ways they have tried to get food to the population that remains there. Pontifical Mission who has an office and staff in this area has been able to do get them water and feed them for several weeks now. They are saving lives. We hope to continue helping them as long as our funding permits us to do it.

If you are following the news you have probably seen that when the Shaifa Hospital was taken over 300 people mostly children were found dead in the rubble that remained. Homes around the hospital were burnt with the residences within. Eight people who cooked for the World Central Kitchen were killed while traveling in a van, perhaps you have also seen photos of this reality. There is no quick end to this war and we hope that you have the means to help us. Your prayers are greatly appreciated so that a way is found for a peaceful solution for our brothers and sisters as they live through this nightmare.

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New informations

March 15, 2024

 

We promised to keep you informed on what we’d be doing now since the war has not allowed us to continue our projects in the South. Our little team met last week to discern what the Lord wants of us. No one can get in, only a few large Church relief organizations who have local staff there can get the much-needed water and food in to keep people alive. We concluded that we cannot help them ourselves now, so we must join with other relief organizations who can do so. These are the steps I took before our meeting:

-       Recovered our money from the bank in G. City and put it in a new account

in Jerusalem in the same bank. This took several trips to Jerusalem to do.

Fr. George has the second signature on this “Daughters of Charity” account.

-       Visited other agencies that are getting water and food to the people. Since the

The attack on the Orthodox Church, which left 17 people dead, has caused world attention to this Orthodox parish and our Catholic parish. Between the two, they are harboring 400 to 600 Muslim and Christians whom they are trying to feed. They are completely cut off from the South where the food is being trucked in. Other homeless people, who never left the North for the South with the majority of the people, also are served in the two parishes.  Fr. Gabriel, the parish priest, was outside the Strip when the war began. He now works full time at the Patriarchate trying to get relief to the people in these parishes. These days he is trying to get fuel and flour in. Two or three days a week they serve a hot meal to these refugees. Sisters from the three communities there help while also caring for the thirty handicapped children with the Missionaries of Charity, with whom we stayed when we were there.

 

What appears now is that this war will continue for months ahead. No one will be allowed to enter the South until the war is finished. We have no idea if there will be a government there that will issue permits to enter. Our days of going down and having our programs seem to be over. Sabah, who has been running our programs for 18 years, has gotten out with her husband to go to Egypt. I’ve had no direct news of Wasel our Social Worker.  Many of our friends are refugees in the south.

 

If you are interested in still funding us, know that your funding now goes toward the salaries of our two staff and donations go to four other people who have been working with us for about 20 years. They all live in the south of the Strip. This money is keeping them and their large families alive. Your donations will go monthly to the Latin Patriarchate which cares for 200 to 400 people in the Catholic parish and in the Orthodox parish where they have been refugees for months. They provide meals and water to these families. The cost of a meal varies as the food that is available and its price changes. One priest and several sisters care for this large number of people. Many have died due to injuries and lack of medicine and medical care.

 

 Every two months we will meet and discern with the Lord what direction to proceed. We will still be helping Christians and Muslims by saving their lives, which is important to us.

Every month you can follow events with us on our website. It is www.daughtersofcharity-gaza-blogspot.com.Things are constantly changing. We are committed to continuing to help the people, especially in this critical time by providing the basics of water and food. If the war stops, then people may need other essential items. In our 27 years of existence, we’ve helped after four wars, yet none as destructive as this one.

Know that you are in our prayers as you decide whether or not to continue to assist us. In any event, we understand your decision.

The pictures are sent to me by our past driver who is an outstanding husband and father. He is now volunteering to help the children of the refugee camps by organizing different activities for them. He and his family are refugees suffering from hunger and the same diseases as the population in the south.

Blessings,

Sr. Frantiska DC,

Fr. George SJ,

Sr. Juliana Notre Dame of Sion, and

Sr. Susan DC

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