Impact
Our impact
The war and genocide is taking a catastrophic toll on children in Gaza
Every day, Gaza’s children wake up to a world of destruction, violence, and hunger. Constant fear and anxiety leaves many wishing they weren’t alive. The impact of this horror will last a lifetime.
Every month our teams reach around 14,000 children and their families with the essentials to survive and hope through moments of play. They provide vital support to traumatised children across Gaza.
Impact snapshot: Emergency support in Gaza
Keeping families alive
Families who are displaced from their homes live in tents, or temporary shelters in schools. Often they have fled bombings with nothing but one set of clothes. Since early 2024, our teams have distributed emergency cash and food, clean water, medicine and hygiene kits to these children and families in desperate need.
Food and water
There is comprehensive famine in Gaza. Our tireless teams, themselves barely surviving on scare meals and water, are able to secure some basic food items such as canned beans, peas and meat, as well as rice and lentils, at astronomical prices, to keep feeding as many people as the funds we are able to raise allow. Your donations also help them to provide drinking water wherever they can, such as at this school-turned-shelter in Jabalia (pictured above).
Cash, medicine and essentials
When people flee their homes, or escape after they are bombed, they leave their lives and their comforts behind. Every kind donation helps us to provide these families in desperate need with emergency cash grants which helps them to buy whatever food, water, hygiene products they can find. Our teams are also sourcing and distributing any hygiene items (eg menstrual products) they can to displaced families. In other areas, they are able to locate and partner with dentists and pharmacists to cover people’s basic health needs.
Cleanliness and hygiene
People’s health is closely connected to the cleanliness of their surroundings. Israel’s assault on Gaza has destroyed sanitation infrastructure, created mass destruction of the environment, and forced people into makeshift camps with no water, sanitation or services. Thanks to your support, we are able to fund plumbing teams to fix and maintain toilets in school shelters, and clean-up crews to collect rubbish and spray insecticide to prevent mosquitoes.
Providing learning opportunities
No child in Gaza has attended school since early October 2023. The lost years of education will have a lasting impact on a whole generation of children and young adults.
Our teams have set up four ‘tent’ schools where teachers of Arabic, English and Maths provide lessons to school-age children. A travelling puppet show reaches thousands of children in school-shelters, teaching them the importance of about mental and physical health, the importance of looking after each other…
… Plus the dangers of unexploded ordinance.
Semsem puppet theatre
Children have lost favourite toys, places to play and learn in bombings and multiple displacements. Sheltering in tents and repurposed schools, they are denied what every child has the right to – places to play and learn in safety. Our team at the Canaan Institute conceptualised a puppet theatre show which teaches children about mental and physical health, the importance of looking after each other, and the dangers of unexploded ordinance. In short, how to survive the catastrophic circumstances forced upon them. They have run over 50 performances reaching thousands of children.
Materials to learn
Textbooks, notebooks, reading books, pens, pencils and other materials children need to learn are scarce. Most are lost under the rubble of destroyed homes. Thanks to generous donations from supporters, our teams have managed to source and distribute simple learning materials to help those children attending our ‘tent’ schools to make notes, revise and understand their lessons. For most of these children, these products mean more than simply the ability to learn. Having a pen and paper provides them a tiny portion of normality, where they can record what they know and that they live.
School lessons
Every child has the right to an education. But since October 2023, no child in Gaza has had any formal education. Critical school exams have not taken place for those in their last school years. Those just starting school have not been taught how to read and write. The impact of this loss is immeasurable. Your donations have helped to fund four ‘tent’ schools – paying teachers a stipend to provide lessons in the core subjects of Arabic, English and Maths. Each school caters to about 200 school-age children, giving them a routine and a way to spend their day, distracted from violence and hunger.
Playing to bring some childhood back
It is hard to convey in words what our teams are doing to keep hope alive in Gaza. They create small miracles every single day for children who are denied the basic right to life.
From art and craft workshops, to skate schools, kite-making sessions, chess tournaments, sports and games, each and every activity leader in Gaza is providing entertainment for children profoundly traumatised, acutely hungry, and experiencing deep loss. They are driven by relentless energy, commitment and perseverance amid months of unimaginable personal hardship.
Sports and games
We run regular sports and games workshops for children in locations across Gaza, led by activity leaders from our partner organisations. They cater to children of all ages, providing them with fun and games to take their minds off the death and destruction that they witness every day. These moments of joy can help children to remember that there is still something to live for, even amid their profound loss.
Arts and crafts
Our extremely talented artist-activity leaders from our partner organisations are also providing regular arts and crafts workshops, thanks to your continued support. Your donations help activity leaders to source and buy art and craft materials that are used in the workshops, and to give the activity leader a small monthly stipend to help them buy food and water for their own families.
Skate School Gaza
The Canaan Institute’s director, Issa Saaba, set up a skate school for children in the ruins of Gaza City’s stadium in early 2024. They managed to source rollerblades and skates from stock – some damaged from bombings, but repaired by the team – to then help 50 young people learn to skate, or improve their skills. Each batch of the skate school then concluded with a competition. Amid destruction, our teams are performing small miracles for Gaza’s children.
Trauma support & Hope
All of our activities are designed to help children and their families to find moments of joy, helping them to remember hope for a better future. Children are encouraged to share their feelings, fears and hopes in art and craft workshops, and to find joy and hope through sports and games.
Before October 2023, our flagship programmes Brighter Futures focussed on trauma support for Gazan children who had lived through several wars and aggressions. Now, our focus is on creating a foundation for children, mothers and fathers who are living through a genocide to process their trauma. These sessions are held with select groups where trained social workers / activity leaders lead discussions and workshop activities to encourage people to share their thoughts, fears and feelings and find ways to manage these daily.