Voice of Women
Issue no. 299
16 October 2008
In this issue:
- Poverty forces them to leave. The Economic Hardship in Gaza Strip Kill the Dreams of the Palestinian Youth
Poverty forces them to leave
The Economic Hardship in Gaza Strip Kill the Dreams
of the Palestinian Youth
by: Rasha Farhat
Translated by: Sophie Shiber
Walking in the streets of Gaza, each having an old dream that s/he wished would come true on this land and nowhere else. They had great dreams but the circumstance came not in favor of them. Closure, unemployment, internal division, poverty and siege, all drive the Palestinian youth to the peak of despair that kill their dreams and ambitions, and force them to run away from a reality imposed by the previous factors. Factors where siege mix with internal clashes; which leave the Palestinian youth depressed and unemployed, and consequently thinking of running away as the only left resort.
Lost Dreams
Ahmad, 25 years old engineer, did not think three years ago of working abroad, he always said that he’d rather do good to his people and country with his knowledge and education. But after things went bad in Gaza and there were less opportunities for engineers in finding decent jobs he had another story. Ahmad says: “I graduated from the engineering school with a high GPA, but construction industry in Gaza strip contracted due to the lack of raw material, now I think seriously of finding a job in one of the gulf countries. Time passes by and my dreams collapse on the rock of reality. I am still looking for an opportunity to save me from this reality, it is my right to have a decent job, to marry and to have kids like any other person in this world, I am not asking for the impossible”.
Political Disagreements
Mahmood Abdul Ilah who works for one of the civil society organizations say: “I earn $200 a month, and I have a wife and two kids. Life is so hard. My salary does not cover the expenses of a baby and prices are increasing. Despite the fact that my parents do not encourage me to travel, I find myself with no other choice. Travelling is the only thing that keep me hoping for a better reality. Everything in Gaza became either politicized or poor. It is either you join one of the political factions to pursuit your dreams or live in poverty forever, or leave the country”.
Mahmood adds: “The political disagreements only secretes poverty and hunger, the dreams of the youth vanished and they only think of leaving to any other place in the world, a place that give them an opportunity to live relatively in peace and stability. This is a minimum requirement and right. I pray to God that these political parties take into account our dreams in order for us not to reach a stage of psychological outburst, a stage that we might reach soon”.
Negative Effects and Numbers
The vast majority of psychological studies indicate that there is a negative effect on the physical and psychological wellbeing of the Palestinian youth, and that a huge percentage of the unemployed experience psychological imbalances that they pass to their families. This is originated from their self worth deficiency that results from the fierce unemployment. As a consequence, a stage of poverty, a sense of helplessness and failure is created. A percentage of youth are found to be suffering from boredom, low mental and physical alertness. Unemployment hinders the process of psychological growth for the youth who are still in the stage of psychological development.
The major reason for such problems is the lack of financial resources, and the inability of youth to express their energy and liveliness. Youth are supposed to have lot of energy that is put in its right channels, since these channels are absent in Gaza, this energy stays inside them and turn into a destructive factor to their psychology.
A report by the Development Studies Center show that poverty rate in Gaza during 2008 reached 80% and that 66.7% live under severe poverty as a result of closure and rising unemployment rates. To name a few factors that lead to the economic and psychological hardships are: scarce imports and absence of supervision on prices, reduction in the national production, and increase of the economic dependency on donors especially food donations.
The report showed that 62% of the families in Gaza made modifications on their spending patterns to adapt to the conditions imposed by the siege. Two thirds of the population of the Gaza strip found difficulty in providing basic commodities, which make it difficult to adapt to the continuous deterioration. In 2007, closures were highest since the establishment of the PNA. As a consequent internal clashes increased; political, social and economic disengagement between Gaza and WB resulted and Gaza became totally isolated from the external world
Records of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs show that there were 45,000 immigration applications submitted to foreign representative offices to the PA since mid 2006.
PCBS census of 2003 and 2004 show that 20% of the Palestinian youth wish to immigrate (22% WB and 16% GS) Youth in the age group 20-24 comprised the highest percentage of those who wished to immigrate (27%). Other studies and statistics dated September 2006 show that the percentage of those who wish immigrate reached 44%.
Houses in refugee camps
Severe Poverty…Tens Live Under One Roof and Families Have No Privacy
By: Gaza-Hanan Abu Dghaim
Translated by: Sophie Shiber
Most of the refugee camps in Gaza Strip were created in the 40’s of last century with the arrival of the displaced Palestinians. It is enough for one to visit one of these refugee camps to be able to imagine the conditions in the rest of these camps, since they all were created in the womb of poverty and suffering.
In the Alley
In Jabalya Refugee Camp (northern of Gaza Strip) we traveled around between the houses and ran by Abdul Fattah (36 years old) or as they call him Abu Imad while he was sitting in front of his house. He was proactive and said: “I want to tell you welcome to my house, but its condition is really terrible, I am embarrassed to tell you to invite you in”.
As we toured the 60 meter-squared house-which took a few minutes only- we found that the words of Abu Imad under-described the conditions of the house. Abu Imad describes: “in this room my old mother sleeps with my divorced sister and her four children. In the second room I sleep with my wife and seven children. During the day these two rooms become our living room were we have visitors and also where the children study, and during the night these rooms become like a sardine can. The house is not safe and the food is not available. In such an unhealthy house, any disease might be hidden in each of the corners. It is inhuman”.
This is what we saw during our tour in Abu Imads house. In addition to the two rooms, the house also contains a bathroom that you can barely stand in, a kitchen with few appliances and pots waiting for someone to fill them up with food for the children”.
Lack of Privacy
Jawdat, Abu Imads brother lives next to Abu Imad from the north. From the south, there is a small shop. And from the back, resides a neighbor, Abu Faisal. Only one meter separates the front of Abu Imads house from a neighbor. You get the feeling that all these houses are only rooms in one single house since they are small and only separated with thin walls, through which the smell of food, laughter, cry and secrets are transmitted.
Im Imad (32 years old) says: “my eldest child is in the forth grade and my youngest is one year old, we all live in the very same room. We try to have some privacy in our intimate relationship but this is not possible. Sometimes if one of my children wake up during the night I feel so shy that s/he might have heard or seen anything. I am so worried that this will affect their behaviors and psychology”.
Im Imad adds: nothing is really private between us and our neighbors; we hear them talk, laugh and cry. I know who visits them and where they go, all this through these walls. I am sure they know the same about us the same way”.
She points to the walls and say: “what are these walls suppose to hide? The insects pass through the walls of our neighbor to our house, and you expect us to have privacy and secrets!!!”
The Refugees are the Poorest
Nothing changes for the generations living in refugee camps. It is enough to see the faces of children, elder people and women to know the degree of poverty they live in, poverty that kill the humanity of the refugees. Poverty levels peaked due to the closure on Gaza resulting in a 83% poverty rate.
As with the case of thousands of families, Abu Imads depend on the UNRWA for their food, an agency that is as old as the Palestinian refuge. The Palestinian refugees in camps –who depend on the services of the UNRWA-, suffer from high unemployment rates, severe overpopulation and bad health facilities.
Hajja Mounira (62 years old) Abu Imads mother said: “the services of UNRWA improved a little bit since its establishment, now we have food coupons between now and then, and we have financial donations, but at the end it is not enough There are 15 people living in this house, my son Abdul Fattah is unemployed, and we live on the bits that the UNRWA provides. These depleted walls don’t protect us neither from sun in summer nor for rain in winter, or even protect us from insects, till when do we have to live like that?”
Dreams, Dreams…
The dreams of adults are little and the dreams of children are innocent, and all is summarized by Imad (11 years old): “I wish I had a room of my own, filled with toys where I can play with my friends. I wish I can buy beautiful clothes and that I can go to amusement parks”.
Imad says with bitterness: “I wish we had a nice house where we can sleep peacefully without my mom waking us up in the middle of the night to tell us that rain wetted our mattresses”.
Im Imad added to her sons’ dreams: “we dream of living in a decent house, not castles or fancy houses, just a place to live with my children peacefully, and to be able to earn decent amount of money at the end of each month and not to wait for food coupons”.
