A Safe Place for Kids in Deheishe Refugee Camp

Thank you for reading our message. The situation for Palestinian is extremely dire at the moment and I would like to briefly share with you some thing that are going on in the West Bank and with Karama Organization. I will write you the projects Karama Organization has been doing since last October (2023).

Since the war started, many Palestinian workers have lost their jobs and income. In Bethlehem region alone, thousands used to work in what is called Israel and weren’t able to get to their employers anymore after cancellation of their permits. In addition, the closure of checkpoints in all of the West Bank soon had an impact on the livelihood of people here as all business slowed down. Therefore, our first project was started in November to distribute food parcels to the most needed: 700 food packages were distributed worth 350 NIS or 100 USD.

Later, Karama also started a cash for work project, where we would hire some of unemployed workers in small projects around the camp. The worker would work for 10 to 15 days and get paid 30 USD per day. The type of activities they did included cleaning the streets, painting walls and making sure public areas in the camp were safe, accessible and clean. We also made sure to assist any families in need with food and medicine; covering for them the cost of medication and making sure we were able to obtain the medicine through our network when shortages existed. In addition, Karama was in contact with many university or college students in the camp who shared their struggles to cover university fees. We stepped in for several cases and helped them pay their fees for the semester.

Besides, Karama worked in an area at the border of the camp to create a children’s playground. In this area we will also make a water well, to have more water available for the camp residents and services. The well will be around 50 square meter. Not importantly, Karama Organization also implemented entertainment activities for children of the camp to help them enjoy their time and provide stress relief.

Moreover, Karama cooperated with the UNRWA and the local electricity company to develop the electricity in the camp and make sure it is safe. This donation included helping with building a room for the generators in the camp, so there will be less fall out of the electricity during the winter time where previously wind or rain could do damage and cause problems.

Finally, Karama worked together to rehabilitate the girls school of the camp, to make it ready for school year 2024-2025 and paint certain areas of it. Now the school year has started and we will support the UNRWA school committee in any needs that they have to safely educate our children.

Unfortunately, in a few short months we might not be able to continue this type of work anymore. Right now, we are urgently trying to assist families again with food packages, as the number of families living in poverty has risen greatly and a huge number of families can’t afford food. We have had to let go of most of our staff members who used to work part-time and full-time and we now only have part-time staff and volunteers. This is not sustainable for us as an organization and we are already seeing the difficulties of this; in our capacity to keep up with our administration, social media and building for example.

Help Karama stay a reliable, active partner for the vulnerable communities in Bethlehem area and please consider supporting our work.

Hello Friends,

We have some small update for you! Our plan was to prepare a list of long-term achievements. However, the challenging situation in Palestine, lead us to launch a group of urgent emergency responses, and some other pre-planned activities

First, Ramadan Kareem and Happy Eid!

As you know, the ongoing violence is increasing in Gaza, the massive loss of life and infrastructure have continued to intensify. At the same time, the situation in the West Bank is also intensifying; violence, closures, demolitions and loss of live are happening on daily basis.

So, at Karama this year we could not do much compared of our yearly Ramadan and Eid activities where we try to host discharge activities for children in the camp. This year our priority was refugee families who are now struggling to put food on the table with the closures and restriction on Palestinian workers forced by the occupation, many have lost their sources of income. We performed to emergency activities to support these families, through your continuous support: 

First, we cooked daily meals for Iftar and distributed on the most disadvantaged families.

Second, we made a coupon for our production unit customers, who can now get a discount on their purchases and some received a present on the number of their purchases.

This small activity makes a huge difference for families of four and five members, who need to save their cash, especially with the rising market prices!

                                                         Some Needed Renovations!

Our center needed some small renovations and cleaning up after the cold winter season, we are also preparing our kitchen for upcoming training activities for refugee women in the camp in cooperation with a local organization. We took this opprtunity to employ some workers who have lost their jobs for seven months now to help us make the needed renovation, and as you can see with the support of their passionate energies, we managed to make real needed changes. 

Some of the main renovation we started working on is building a small water well next to our kitchen, our kitchen is connected to a small outside garden which we plan to renovate into a small playground for refugee, as the camp is already limited in safe spaces for children and has no green spaces for children to play in.

The well will also be used as a water reserve in case of emergencies as the land is surrounded by two main sources of service for the refugee in the camp which are he UNRWA clinic and the local public serves committee who always need water. With the water scarcity in the camp due to the control of the occupation forces on the source of water and limiting the amount of water reaching the camp. 

                                                                                                                                                                            Hope fully by the end of next month we will have a fully functioning kitchen and training space where participants can make delicious sweets, meals, and teach others! 

Many thanks for your support!

Links:

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