THERE’S ONE household in Gaza whose story has been told by the charity Human Appeal – so that others can appreciate what winter conditions are like in this tiny territory. This is the story Human Appeal has told.
Mahrous Khalil Zu’rob, his wife Nasreen and his five sons live in a slum in Gaza, Palestine. Their tiny, dilapidated house is situated beside a landfill of pungent refuse, where the family scavenges for scraps of wood that they can burn as fuel.
Mahrous Khalil doesn’t have a job and without a stable source of income for the family, they cannot buy basic essentials like food, medicine or gas for cooking.
Nasreen says, “We suffer a lot during the winter. It’s a season of suffering. When it rains, we don’t feel safe inside our house because it’s so rickety and doesn’t protect us from the elements. Many times, I’ve been forced to leave with my children and stay with relatives until the house was dry again.”
Nasreen’s children suffer from many diseases due to the cold and lack of heating in their home. If she can find firewood, she lights a fire even though the smoke from it is dangerous to her son Walid, who is suffering from a chest problem. Nasreen has no way to buy a heater so lighting a fire is the only way she can keep her family from freezing.
For the past three months, they haven’t been able to buy cooking gas. Walid desperately needs treatment for his chest complication but Nasreen can’t take him to the doctors because she doesn’t have enough money for an appointment
Fortunately the family of Mahrous Khalil had their suffering eased by Human Appeal. With the support of generous donors, the charity was able to provide the family with blankets, warm clothes and an electric heater to protect them from the winter cold.
This is just one family which Human Appeal has helped. Last year they provided safe, clean water to 200,000 Palestinian children and took a number of other steps to support orphans – but there are other families who have to rely on charities to survive.
•For more information about Human Appeal and how to donate to their work, go to: https://donate.humanappeal.org.uk/
•Read more about it: Gaza under attack after Trump U-turn Rohingya: Human Appeal calls for support
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