By Plan International USA | Plan International
Since the conflict between Israel and Hamas began on October 7, we’ve seen heartbreaking images of families struggling to survive and children suffering the worst effects of war, poverty and trauma.
Quick facts on Gaza:
Children are always innocent victims of war. Here are a few of the ways we are seeing this devastating situation affect them, especially girls.
Children in Gaza are unsafe:
It’s estimated that about 90% of Gaza’s 2.2 million people have been displaced – many multiple times. No child is attending school, either. The education and health care systems have been destroyed, with many schools turning into makeshift hospitals and refugee centers for people in need of shelter.
The violence has also led to at least a thousand children needing amputations of one or more of their limbs, but this number is likely higher. Most hospitals have become nonfunctional as well, so children are not able to have their injuries treated.
In response to the humanitarian disaster in Gaza, Plan International is supporting the Egyptian Red Crescent to deliver much-needed first aid kits to families in Gaza. These kits include items like bandages, antiseptics and pain relief medication.
Hunger in Gaza
The IPC has designated 95% of the Gaza Strip under the highest levels of food insecurity and warned of imminent famine. Nine out of 10 children don’t have enough food to keep growing, and so far, estimates show that at least 8,000 children have already been diagnosed with acute malnutrition.
What headlines make clear is that there just isn’t enough food in Gaza. It has been extremely difficult to get food and other relief into the area, and experts fear widespread famine could occur soon — and that more children will die.
Plan is working in partnership with Gaza’s welfare association, Taawon, to provide hot meals to children and their families in Gaza. So far, we’ve delivered over 11,000 meals and are working to provide even more.
Girls’ menstrual health is suffering
As families are displaced from one location to the next, reliable access to safe water is diminished.
Reporting shows that there’s only one toilet for every 341 people, and only one shower for every 1,292 people. When girls and women get their period, they don’t have the water, supplies or privacy to manage their health. Without a health care system in place, routine and preventative care stops. Put together, these conditions can lead to dangerous infections that threaten girls’ lives.
For girls in Gaza, routine menstrual health care is vital to their ability to survive and recover from humanitarian crises. In collaboration with Plan’s partner ActionAid in Egypt, we’re packaging and distributing menstrual health kits to girls and young women in Gaza. These kits include items like pads, underwear and clean dresses so girls have one less thing to worry about as they live through this humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
With partners in the Middle East, Plan is responding to mass displacement and providing relief like safe spaces for children, mental health support, education for children and menstrual health kits for girls.
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