Helpers in Gaza Need Flexible Partners

“In the Gaza Strip, normal disaster relief is not enough,“ says Anna Beck, General Director of Children’s Relief Bethlehem. Together with local grassroots organizations and other NGOs long established in the region, Children’s Relief Bethlehem has worked since the fighting first flared to put together an assistance network. This new form of cooperation provides the flexibility needed in the daunting, chaotic environment of the Gaza Strip today. The present conflict, complicated by geography, religion and power politics, and with its numerous stakeholders, makes every classic form of humanitarian aid difficult. Children’s Relief Bethlehem is convinced that assistance must be coordinated with locally integrated partners, and the first efforts in this direction have been successfully initiated.

The network includes Europeans, Palestinians and Israelis. The first fruit of this cooperation can be seen in the medical supplies delivered by Medico International for use by the Palestinian Medical Relief Society in its mobile clinics in the Gaza Strip. Children’s Relief Bethlehem released funds for this purpose from its catastrophe line of credit. Later, the programs for traumatized children will be expanded.

Without the wholehearted support of certain Israeli individuals and organizations, no initiative would ever get any further than the Erez Crossing. “A fundamental respect for one‘s fellow man, an effort to deal fairly with others and a belief in protecting the weak combine to help us all pull together,” says Barbara Schmid-Federer, Vice President of Children’s Relief Bethlehem.

Employees of the Caritas Baby Hospital are also doing their part. “As Palestinians, we cannot realistically expect to get into the Gaza Strip,” explains Medical Director Dr. Hiyam Marzouqa. “So, we are concentrating on everything that we can possibly do from Bethlehem.” For example, preparations are under way to treat children from the Gaza Strip in Bethlehem as well – if safe passage can be arranged.

Children’s Relief Bethlehem depends on donations to continue its aid to Gaza and to provide the ongoing assistance that its traumatized children will need.