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 |
