http://www.gazaark.org/translation/
Thanks to Gaza's Ark solidarity:
MECA distributes local food packages
(Also: please support Awni Farhat's studies in UK. See below for more about Awni Farhat, Products & Endorsements Coordinator for Gaza's Ark in Gaza)
Four Hundred (400) Palestinian families in Gaza are receiving food packages made up of agricultural products produced in Gaza, thanks to the Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA) and Gaza's Ark international solidarity network.
Israel's 51 days of attacks on Gaza this past summer killed more than 2000 people, destroyed thousands of homes and apartments, damaged 75 hospitals and clinics, and caused millions of dollars of damage to farmland and civilian infrastructure. Currently more than 100,000 people in Gaza are displaced and an alarming 72% of households are considered food insecure by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Solidarity not Charity
This food distribution will include locally produced food products thereby directly benefitting both the local economy and families in need. Unlike goods which are brought from outside Gaza, this distribution is not subject to permits or authorizations from the Israeli occupation, nor on the 'charity' of aid organizations.
MECA is distributing the food packages to 400 families throughout Gaza who are food insecure. The distribution will mobilize and empower grassroots organizations and local volunteers in Gaza to help their communities. MECA partner organizations in Jabalia, Khan Younis, Nuseirat, and Gaza City are assisting in identifying families who are in need and have been overlooked by larger aid efforts.
"This is an innovative and positive example of how people around the world can work in partnership to support Gaza," says Dr. Mona El-Farra, a physician, activist, and Gaza Project Director for the Middle East Children's Alliance. "Through this small aid effort, we are helping the local producers as well as needy families in Gaza. These families have been impoverished by decades of occupation and years of a tight blockade; many were also hit savagely by the latest Israeli offensive."
This humanitarian relief helps support Palestinian farmers and agricultural cooperatives throughout the Gaza Strip who have been paid $14,000 for their maftoul (couscous), date products like awja, debes and makhtom, spice mixes of dugga and za'atar which are used in traditional Palestinian breakfasts, as well as honey and olive oil.
"The Gaza's Ark project has helped Palestinian women's co-operatives and eight local associations by making solidarity sales and promoting their products outside of Gaza's borders," said Awni Farhat, products and endorsements coordinator for Gaza's Ark.
Salma Abu Mostafa from Abbassan Women's Cooperative for Medicinal Herbs, one of the producers of the food products, added: "This project helped 67 women who work on their farms in the village of Abbassan to earn a bit of income and empower themselves in the community."
Gaza's Ark supporters from Europe, Canada, US and Australia paid for the food as part of an international solidarity campaign aimed at challenging the illegal blockade of Gaza. Individuals and organizations placed orders from Palestinian producers in Gaza and a fishing boat was being rebuilt in the port of Gaza to carry these exports to international markets. The boat was struck by Israeli shelling in July 2014 and destroyed along with thousands of Palestinian homes and other civilian structures. This attack put an end to the plans to sail against the blockade this year, but the international buyers agreed to donate the foodstuffs, originally purchased for export via Gaza's Ark, to humanitarian relief efforts in Gaza.
Trade not Aid
Gaza's Ark and MECA believe that the root causes of poverty and unemployment in Gaza cannot be addressed by humanitarian aid alone.
"The Gaza Strip has many high quality products which could compete in international markets, but we need the light of freedom," emphasized Awni Farhat. "There is an urgent need for opened borders and the lifting of the Israeli blockade."
In order to enjoy the right to earn a livelihood, Palestinians in Gaza need the international community to guarantee their right to freedom of movement, including to trade freely throughout the region and the world. While lifting the blockade remains Gaza's Ark's main objective, this cooperative effort with MECA shows how foodstuffs from Palestinian agricultural producers can help satisfy the immediate needs of Palestinian families and helps to build hope around the idea of a sovereign Palestinian economy.
"With this joint effort, we are sending a message to the world that what we need is our inalienable rights, not charity," comments Dr. El-Farra of MECA.
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Message from Gaza's Ark: Support Awni Farhat - Gaza-based Products Coordinator for Gaza's Ark
Awni has worked as a volunteer with Gaza's Ark for more than 2 years, in addition to volunteering with groups that help children and youth his native Gaza. He has been admitted to a Masters program in Violence Conflict and Development in London, England in 2015, and he is seeking help to enable him to travel and pay for his studies:
Please visit Awni's web page and offer whatever support you can, both directly and by sharing his appeal with your networks.
In continued solidarity
Gaza's Ark Steering Committee
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