Early on June 30th, Bro. Andres, Andrea, and I, Fr. Don M., drove to Gaza, using PBI’s Honda. We got through Erez in good fashion, with a reminder to be back by 4 PM since the crossing closes at 7 PM. Sabah met us on the Gaza side, with Admon our regular cab driver. We drove first to the Sakher School in the Sujjaya section of Gaza City. These 60 nursery school children were in the second week of a two week session of summer school. I am amazed at how much joy they get from so little. The teachers at the school (volunteers?) are an inspiration to the kids. Most of the children (and a few of the teachers) were wearing summer school baseball caps and white T-shirts with black trim around the V neck and a black logo on the front “Children for the Future” (in English and Arabic), and on the back “Daughters of Charity Gaza Project” – a very well designed T-shirt. The children were in three different groups playing games, or learning some sort of songs or sayings that they would shout out with great glee. The Sakher school has two such two-week summer sessions, including either breakfast or lunch, and trips to the sea (not sure how many).
The second school we visited was the Light and Hope School (Nur al Amal?), also in the Sujjayah section of Gaza City. We funded this school because the nursery school in Beit Hanoun (our usual target school) already had sufficient funding from Anera and other NGO’s for their summer sessions. This summer school was for 60 children about 8-10 years old, again with the same T-shirts and caps. It seemed to be more “professional” in its approach, perhaps because of the age differential. One class I watched in a darkened room was doing some impromptu play-acting, with two children in the center of their circled classmates, responding to different prompts from the teacher. Another class I watched seemed to be learning dancing. Later, after lunch had been served, this class put on a lovely performance of folk-dancing for all to watch.
These were two of the seven schools funded by our donors with 5000 NIS each. We did not have time to visit the others. One question raised (presuming we have the correct information) The Light and Hope School was only having one summer session of two weeks for 5000 NIS, the Sakher School was having two such sessions with the same 5000 NIS. What about the other five schools. My impression was that they were to have two such sessions for the kids. Why the discrepancy? Perhaps we were not explicit in what we expected for the 5000 NIS given to these seven schools. We will verify what was done in all seven schools and then make more explicit directions for future summer sessions.
We also visited two of the needy families we support living in the Beit Lahiya section close to the Israeli border. What was encouraging, in addition to the obvious bond between parents and children and among the children themselves, was Sabah’s report that the move to food vouchers which we adopted in the last months in place of food stuffs delivered to the families, was deeply appreciated. Each family can choose from 25 approved items, and this enables them to adapt the help more to their own needs. We hope to continue this program through December, assisting a total of 150 families associated with the three schools we were helping. This program of family assistance comes to 30,000 NIS per month. Sabah thinks it is working quite well.
Our final stop was with the Missionaries of Charity for Mass and a visit with some of their handicapped children. I don't know to what extent we are giving them assistance. In all cases all were delighted with Sister Susan’s imminent return and are looking forward to welcoming her back. Fawzia joined us for some of the visits we made, and we did stop by briefly at one of the womens council groups with whom Sabah is connected.
