A father of seven children, Mohammed worries each day how he will feed his family. Injured, and permanently disabled, Mohammed is unable to walk on his own and hence, confined to a wheelchair. Completely dependent on aid with no source of income, the family has received food primarily fromUNRWA. With the recent cuts to funding of…
Hanan is a 54 year old woman who cares for 10 family members in her makeshift home in Rafah. Ten years ago, Hanan and her husband separated, which left her dependent on outside aid to feed her family. Although she receives some monetary assistance and a modest income, the total amounts to approximately $1.10 a…
Following the tremendous success of our 2018 Ramadan Fundraising Iftar, we invite you once again to break fast with us as we help the most impoverished children and their families in Gaza and the refugee camps. We are very excited to have as our Keynote speaker this year, author, professor and human rights attorney, Noura…
People are suffering in Gaza as a result of incessant wars and an occupation of over 50 years.
At this very moment, Team Kinder is on the ground in North Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley Palestinian Wavel Camp distributing clothes and food fuel to families impacted by recent floods. We are now witnessing the 4th generation being raised in the camp. The Wavel Camp used to be the French Military base. The families live in…
The Social Development Center is a school KinderUSA funds in Ein el Helweh camp, the largest of 12 camps in all of Lebanon, that cares for 81 students, 28 of whom are Syrian refugees, some born in the camp. In addition, we have a tutoring program with 44 students whereby students from the UNRWA schools…
Although no longer in the international spotlight, the humanitarian crisis in Palestine continues unabated. In Gaza, food insecurity impacts 7 out of 10 people due to widespread poverty and high unemployment. As the strangulating blockade approaches its twelfth year, the overall health and well-being of the civilian population continue on a downward spiral. Meanwhile, the…
As 2018 comes to an end, we are sad to report that living conditions in Gaza continue to get worse, taking an unfathomable toll on the population. Unemployment is over 55%, with youth unemployment at 75%, while most who do get paid receive only half their wages. Many families live on $1 a day, at best.…
With every passing month, Gaza becomes more “unlivable”. More than 1.6 Million of the Gaza Strip’s 2 million residents now rely on the delivery of humanitarian goods and services just to survive. According to the World Bank “Gaza’s economy is in a free fall” with an unemployment rate reaching more than 32 percent, “the highest…
Living in Gaza is a challenge for anyone, but today it is especially so with the with electricity running at a mere 4 hours a day, limited availability of clean water, and a blockade that persists, entering its 11th year. Our annual Ramadan Farmers project distributes fresh food to the most marginalized areas, mostly where…
A father of seven children, Mohammed worries each day how he will feed his family. Injured, and permanently disabled, Mohammed is unable to walk on his own and hence, confined to a wheelchair. Completely dependent on aid with no source of income, the family has received food primarily fromUNRWA. With the recent cuts to funding of both UNRWA and USAID to Palestine, education, healthcare, shelter, and food support have worsened pushing families, like Mohammed’s, further to the edge.
The cutting of funding coupled with the blockade continues to be a source of deepening vulnerability for families across Gaza. Children are always the most vulnerable while heads of household do all within their means to provide food, mostly reducing diversity in their diets affecting the quality of nutrition.
“We usually sleep with our stomachs empty, giving our children what we have which is never enough,” said Mohammed’s wife Ayat. “I clean people’s houses to purchase some food which is limited. The children eat chips sometimes given by classmates.”
Mohammed and his family were recipients of the Ramadan Farmers Food distribution last year. “It was a very depressing time not knowing how I would feed my family during this holiest of months. I did not want to face my children,” said Mohammed.
Ayat was excited to learn they were receiving fresh food from the KinderUSA distribution. “I couldn’t believe that we would get the food basket. It calmed me down and cleared my mind”, she added. “It helped me preserve my dignity as I don’t have to work for my relatives this month. It made my husband happier and less depressed. For the first time in a long time we had joy in our home.” KinderUSA has completed field verification visits of our beneficiaries and ready to begin the first round of fresh vegetables, dairy, and live chickens for the Ramadan distribution. Sadly, the need is greater this year than the previous 17 Ramadan’s we have worked in Gaza. Our goal is to serve a minimum of 2500 families. With your generous donations, we can exceed that amount and carry beyond Ramadan. “It is staggering to think that in today’s age of robotics, thousands of children in Gaza go to sleep hungry, drink unsafe water, and live in a dangerous sanitation environment. We know we have a job to do and I am asking you to join us to bring food to as many children this Ramadan as we can,” Dr. Laila Al-Marayati, Chairperson KinderUSA.
Please consider making an online donation today of $50, $100, $250, or whatever you can to help expand our reach. Thank you.
Hanan is a 54 year old woman who cares for 10 family members in her makeshift home in Rafah. Ten years ago, Hanan and her husband separated, which left her dependent on outside aid to feed her family. Although she receives some monetary assistance and a modest income, the total amounts to approximately $1.10 a day.
In preparation for the Ramadan food distribution, KinderUSA field staff visited Hanan’s home, writing in their report that her shelter “is not fit for a human being to live.” The roof of the home is covered by metal panels, and there are no doors or windows. The “flooring” consists mostly of sand.
Like Palestinian women in general, Hanan is extremely resilient and resourceful. After separating from her husband, Hanan was determined to attend the university in order to care for her family, hoping a degree would help secure a job. Unfortunately, her age, coupled with the high unemployment rate in Gaza, placed her at the bottom of employer lists.
Undeterred, Hanan began providing private tutoring lessons to special needs children from her home to earn a meager income. “I didn’t give up. I decided to work as a private tutor for a number of students, teaching them in my house to satisfy my family’s needs in order to survive. I have a 20-years old daughter Fedaa with special needs (blind and deaf). I also help my divorced daughter with my grandson, Muayyad, who is 4 years old”, Hanan said. “We are suffering a lot, and in spite of this suffering, I still have hope to survive.”
Hanan and her family are now on the KinderUSA roster of beneficiaries for the Ramadan fresh food distribution. In preparation, our field staff have been visiting families, working with marginalized farmers, and finalizing the chicken and dairy contributions from the women-run cooperatives.
“Sadly, the need is far greater this year than we anticipated. Our goal is to reach as many families as possible with your help,” said Dr. Laila Al-Marayati, Chairperson KinderUSA.
Please consider making an online donation today to help with the preparations for Ramadan and full month of food distribution to families such as Hanan.
Following the tremendous success of our 2018 Ramadan Fundraising Iftar, we invite you once again to break fast with us as we help the most impoverished children and their families in Gaza and the refugee camps.
We are very excited to have as our Keynote speaker this year, author, professor and human rights attorney, Noura Erakat. Also during our evening, we will hear brief reflections on the need in Palestine by Aziza Hasan, executive director of NewGround: A Muslim Jewish Partnership for Change.
OurRamadan programs make an invaluable difference in the lives of more than 20,000 Palestinians, mostly children, immediately feeding them and their families in15 marginalized areas of Gaza.
“We must wait one year to feed our children full meals in Ramadan.” said Um Omar from Khan Younis.
We purchase fresh food, live poultry, dairy products and more from Palestinian women cooperatives and small-scale farmers, many of whom are also women, leaving self-sustaining newly empowered households!
Our programs work directly on the ground with the most needy communities. Because they are smaller scale, they have a meaningful, tangible impact on the communities that might otherwise be neglected. Kinder fills the gaps not met by larger organizations, as quite often, the poorest fall through the cracks of the large-scale projects.
Please join us for a delicious zabiha dinner and an evening that is sure to nourish mind and soul!
Sunday, May 19th 2019 at 7:30pm
Phoenicia Restaurant
343 N Central Ave.
Glendale, CA 91203Purchase Tickets here
People are suffering in Gaza as a result of incessant wars, a strangulating blockade of land, sea, and air now approaching its 12th year, and an occupation of over 50 years. The infrastructure of Gaza has been decimated leaving 97% of the water undrinkable, 4 hours of electricity a day affecting every aspect of life, and unemployment one of the highest in the world. More than 40% of Gazan’s are food insecure with 80% relying on aid just to survive according the UNRWA. With the recent cuts to funding of both UNRWA and USAID to Palestine, education, healthcare, shelter, and food support will be worsened pushing families further to the edge.
Children in Gaza are at risk of anemia, folic acid and vitamin deficiencies, hypertension, chronic dehydration leading to liver failure, and a host of physical, cognitive, and behavioral problems that could affect their entire lives. Many more children and adults suffer from chronic malnourishment without visible symptoms or any awareness of the short and long-term damage being done to them — and to Gaza’s future.
The right to receive, and the obligations to provide, food, nutrition and medical care in an emergency are enshrined in humanitarian law.
Of the families at risk, many face daily challenges to access food and clean water with parents uncertain how to provide. Bottled water is out of reach for most, leaving contaminated water as their only option. Many skip meals, take on debt and look to support from neighbors and friends in order to feed their children. While children are the most visible victims of chronic malnutrition, women also suffer acutely. Pregnancies in particular take a toll on women’s bodies, and many mothers prioritize their children and husband’s food needs over their own.
KinderUSA has just completed its Emergency Food Distribution and now preparing for Ramadan food distribution. Food assistance and all other forms of support are now more critical than ever to avert a deepening humanitarian crisis. It is our collective responsibility to continue to provide the population much-needed assistance. Gaza, like the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory, desperately needs a just and lasting political solution.
“The children in Gaza carry the brunt of this inhumanity. When we fail our children in need and at risk, the cost is too high to bear. It is not a question of resources or know-how. We have a universal code of human rights, with specific obligations to children. Let’s do our job,” Dr. Laila Al-Marayati, Chairperson ofKinderUSA.
Please consider making an online tax-deductible contribution of $25, $50, $100, or whatever is meaningful to you. Many employers match employee gifts to KinderUSA which is a way to double your donation. Thank you for sharing our compassion for the children.
At this very moment, Team Kinder is on the ground in North Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley Palestinian Wavel Camp distributing clothes and food fuel to families impacted by recent floods.
We are now witnessing the 4th generation being raised in the camp.
The Wavel Camp used to be the French Military base. The families live in the former horse stables that have been turned into living quarters. The photo attached shows the front door of a ‘home’ a family is living in where the horse would hang its head out. It is quite sad, but a testament to the resiliency of our people.
Remember, our work is only possible with your continued support. Please consider donating.
The Social Development Center is a school KinderUSA funds in Ein el Helweh camp, the largest of 12 camps in all of Lebanon, that cares for 81 students, 28 of whom are Syrian refugees, some born in the camp.
In addition, we have a tutoring program with 44 students whereby students from the UNRWA schools come for tutoring by our staff in subjects they are failing or need extra help. The Social Development Center teaches academics such as Arabic, English, Math, Science, reading and writing to name a few subjects. The Center also provides awareness programs for the parents and the students such as smoking, hygiene, acceptance of others.
The Social Development Center is also a place for the camp neighborhood children to gather for activities on Friday’s where they play games & receive food/snacks. Over 50 young people come to play in the open play area every Friday with the staff on hand to guide the activities.
Remember, our work is only possible with your continued support. Please consider donating.
Although no longer in the international spotlight, the humanitarian crisis in Palestine continues unabated. In Gaza, food insecurity impacts 7 out of 10 people due to widespread poverty and high unemployment. As the strangulating blockade approaches its twelfth year, the overall health and well-being of the civilian population continue on a downward spiral.
Meanwhile, the twin blows of funding cuts to the UNRWA and the discontinuation of USAID assistance for Palestine have led to even more misery among large swaths of the population dependent on outside aid for survival. Fuel shortages have contributed to the suffering, crippling the health system, while rolling blackouts play havoc on every aspect of life. According to reports, 97% of Gaza’s water aquifers are contaminated, providing water unsuitable for drinking. The end result of this completely avoidable, man-made crisis is that gastrointestinal diseases account for 12% of all deaths in children under 4 years of age.
Indeed, no aspect of Palestinian life has been unaffected by this crisis. Two million people in Gaza survive on the brink of catastrophe, and the future of thousands of children remains at risk.
While families scramble to survive, KinderUSA continues to deliver food to indigent families and provide meals for school children in Gaza. We believe that our work today is more essential than ever as Palestinians are assailed from all sides in what can only be viewed as a sustained effort to crush the indomitable spirit of resilience and uproot Palestinians from their intimate connection to their land.
Over the years, you have generously supported KinderUSA in our work on behalf of needy children in Palestine and helped promote innovative projects that promote independence and sustainability. When others have shied away, you have stepped forward, upholding the belief that all children – including the children of Palestine – deserve the opportunity to live and thrive in a safe environment that offers hope for a better future.
Please consider making an online tax-deductible contribution of $25, $50, $100, or whatever is meaningful to you. Many employers match employee gifts to KinderUSA which is a way to double or in some instances triple your donation. Together, InshaAllah, we can continue to deliver hope.
As 2018 comes to an end, we are sad to report that living conditions in Gaza continue to get worse, taking an unfathomable toll on the population. Unemployment is over 55%, with youth unemployment at 75%, while most who do get paid receive only half their wages. Many families live on $1 a day, at best. Over 95% of the water supply is now undrinkable due to the persistent lack of electricity limited to about 4 hours per day. The land, sea, and air blockade is now in its 12th year, sealing Gaza off from the rest of the world.
Children in Gaza are caged in a toxic slum from birth to death, where they are being suffocated out of hope, out of life, out of any sense for progress.
One year from now, Gaza will be “unlivable” as determined by the United Nations. Officials recently reconsidered their prediction about 2020 by saying “We’ve been optimistic about this deadline. Gaza is already, in fact, unlivable.”
Despite the hardships, we at KinderUSA are inspired and motivated by the determination and perseverance of our partners and beneficiaries in Gaza. We continue to promote the empowerment of women heads of household by focusing on self-sustainability. KinderUSA provides them with the education and tools they need to begin chicken farming and then we are their first customer, purchasing the eggs and chickens to use for our emergency food distribution program serving Gaza’s neediest families. With your support, we hope to extend this project into 2019 and beyond.
Your donation will continue to enable women to begin their own business, generating an income to care for their children: $170 will buy 200 chickens to get them started; $45 will buy a water tank to feed the chickens; and $25 will buy enough chicken feed to last a 4-month period. To date, KinderUSA has provided 74 women with the necessary skills and tools needed to operate their own business.
Um Mohammed from South of Gaza told our field representative, “Before the project I was very sad because I am the breadwinner of my family ( 8 members ) and my husband left me 3 years ago. I am alone and my house lacks of everything. Today I have an income, I am very happy, I am productive woman and I depend on myself. The project restores my own confidence and gives my children a future”.
Please consider a year-end donation to ensure that this project continues. We at KinderUSA send you the warmest wishes for a new year of peace, hope, and security.
With every passing month, Gaza becomes more “unlivable”. More than 1.6 Million of the Gaza Strip’s 2 million residents now rely on the delivery of humanitarian goods and services just to survive. According to the World Bank “Gaza’s economy is in a free fall” with an unemployment rate reaching more than 32 percent, “the highest rate in two decades”. While the 11 year blockade on Gaza is the primary factor, the recent funding cuts to the UNRWA by the current administration has only deepened the sense of despair among ordinary Palestinians.
After Ramadan, KinderUSA sat with beneficiaries to map out upcoming projects. All spoke clearly and resolutely about the greatest priority: they need food. “We must wait one year to feed our children full meals in Ramadan. To give them something beyond Ramadan is all we ask,” said Um Omar from Khan Younis.
Yes, you read that correctly. Many families in Gaza rely on the Ramadan project to provide their children healthy food. When the funds run dry…when the blessed month of Ramadan passes…these families must scramble to put food on the table.
Working with our partners on the ground, KinderUSA is in the distribution phase of a 4-month project that will provide fresh food to 725 families in Gaza, enlisting farmers and our women cooperatives. Live chickens and fresh eggs will be purchased from our successful, female-run chicken micro-enterprise project with each family receiving 2 distributions over this 4-month period.
Reports from the field are heartbreaking. Ibrahim, one of our beneficiaries, states that, “I am a sick person. I have not been able to work for a long time. I did not receive any help during the holy month of Ramadan except KINDER assistance (Food Distribution). As you see, my house is very bad, I do not have a kitchen, and there is no door to the bathroom. Also, we suffer from the rain water during winter, with the entry of insects and some reptiles into the rooms…my children cannot sleep all nights because of bugs…they often have skin diseases.”
For many Palestinian families, our modest food distributions provide a ray of hope amidst the bleak uncertainty of life in Gaza. “I was afraid of not being able to meet my children’s requirements because of the very difficult economic situation, and my inability to work,” said Ibrahim. “This project (funded by Kinder) helps me to provide the needs of the house as it contains chicken, eggs, vegetables, cheese and others. Thank you to all.”
Over the years, our efforts together have made a difference in the lives of thousands of Palestinian children and their loved ones. Please consider making an online donation today and put smiles on the faces of these wonderful, resilient children.
Living in Gaza is a challenge for anyone, but today it is especially so with the with electricity running at a mere 4 hours a day, limited availability of clean water, and a blockade that persists, entering its 11th year. Our annual Ramadan Farmers project distributes fresh food to the most marginalized areas, mostly where families live in makeshift shelters and rubble from the successive wars. With more than 4,000 people per square kilometer, it remains the most densely populated place in the world.
Every year, the goal of the project is to support and ensure the food security of vulnerable households in the Gaza Strip with this year targeting 13 different areas in 4 separate governorates. Year after year, our project increases as more and more families are hungry and in need of nutritious food. This past year, our partner Beit Lahia, served over 26,000 beneficiaries, employed over 95 farmers and over 70 women cooperatives whose families also benefited adding another 1320 beneficiaries. Each family received fresh food inclusive of live chickens, fresh dairy, vegetables, jam, maftoul, and pressed dates to name a few items, twice a month throughout the month of Ramadan.
At the close of the project, more funds were available and we continued to serve another 825 families in desperate need for two more months, providing fresh food once in each month. Our office staff in Gaza hear and see firsthand heart wrenching stories about our beneficiaries who are living on the brink. Thank you to all who contributed to this most important KinderUSA project and have not forgotten about the children and their families in Gaza. We could not have served this many people without your generosity!
We envision a free, just and peaceful Palestine where children thrive and look forward to a productive future, like children everywhere.
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