How your donations reach Gaza

The current Israeli assault on Gaza has disrupted the financial system. Most people cannot access their own funds in bank accounts or receive money from friends and relatives abroad.  

This is also a challenge for the funds we raise from you – our generous Hope and Play supporters all over the world. Your donations go directly to our partners in Gaza to fund emergency support to children and their families.

Our partners include Issa Saba and Zaher Hania of the Canaan Institute of Pedagogy and artists from Shababeek for Contemporary Art.

Pressing donate is just the first step of many

Your kind donations help families to buy food and water, access functional toilets, get medicines and other basic vital supplies.

But pressing ‘donate’ is just the first of many steps to getting the cash to our partners across Gaza. We asked Issa Saba, director of the Canaan Institute of Pedagogy, to explain the process.  

“Banks are not working in Gaza”

“Banks are not working in Gaza, at least in the north, [so we have to use a colleague based in the south] Mona’s account. In the south there are some functioning banks,” Issa explains. When the Hope and Play team sends donations to Mona, she withdraws cash from the bank, and passes it to activity leaders in her area.  

However, activities funded by the donations from Hope and Play supporters are taking place across Gaza – from Gaza City in the north to Rafah in the south. Movement is restricted by the Israeli military and it is both extremely dangerous and expensive to travel between different locations in Gaza.  

Transferring and commissions

To get funds from Mona in the south to others, Issa has to arrange a transfer to friends who are based in other places with a functioning bank, who can then pass it to activity leaders close to them. The advantage of this friend-to-friend transfer is that it avoids costly commissions from those working in money exchanges.  

Yet in some places and contexts, there is no other choice. Issa says: “The rest we start to pay commissions to some people working in the money and exchange field. They take 11 to 13 percent as commission. We transfer to them and then take the cash in hand. This is the war and its situations.” 

Thank you for your support

Every donation to Hope and Play is sent directly and in full to Gaza. The only overheads are the commissions on money transfer and exchange when it reaches our partners in Gaza.  

Thank you for all your generous donations to ensure that we can keep providing this vital emergency response to children and their families in Gaza. Your support means that we can provide food, water, hygiene and sanitation support and art therapy activities for children and their families who are living through catastrophe.  

Every pound or dollar you give reminds the people in Gaza that they are not forgotten. It reinforces that there is an incredible international community ready to support their resilience. Thank you so much.