ActionAid to Support Constructing 60 toilets and Provision of Hygiene and Sanitation products for Women in Gaza
Gaza strip - In partnership with WEFAQ Association for women and Child Care(WEFAQ) based in In Rafah, , is supporting women and girls in Gaza as best we can amid extremely challenging conditions for aid operations. Our support so far has included distributing hygiene kits - which include tissues, toilet paper, soap, sanitary pads and wet wipes - and constructing 60 toilets and shower blocks in Rafah, which will provide women and girls with a private space.
Those toilets came as emergency response to lack of sufficient toilets and clean water, as well as open sewage that displaced Palestinians have struggled with since the early days of Israel’s assault on Gaza.
Those toilets in Rafah aim to reduce the congestion and contribute in offering some sort of privacy and mitigate daily suffering of women in finding a latrine. They are walking past tents in the street, carrying a large jug of water. One of beneficiaries said. We are suffering every day; it is very tiring routine. I had to walk for almost 20 to 25 minutes to reach the bathroom. I am struggling to reach a bathroom”.
Women in Gaza have been suffering from a desperate lack of sanitary pads in the territory, and many of them had started taking birth control pills to stop their period. There is a sever lack of water and toilet papers.
The residents of Gaza are back to the basic sanitation of digging a hole and covering it. Showering is a luxury they can rarely afford. There is no toilet paper. Even if they can find it at markets, the price is very high that could not be afforded. Instead, women cut up pieces of fabric, towels and use scraps of tents in place of period products and go weeks without showering amid dire humanitarian conditions.
The lack of water means keeping clean is near impossible, with women telling us they have gone for weeks without showering. With Rafah currently hosting more than a million displaced people – more than four times its usual population – in extremely overcrowded conditions, there is no privacy.
Background Information
ActionAid in Palestine (AAP) is a part of global federation working for social justice and gender equality and eradicate poverty in more than 45 countries around the world. AAP started its work in Palestine in 2007 to strengthen the resilience of Palestinian People as ActionAid believes that they should enjoy their rights to freedom, justice and self-determination. AAP implements a number of programs through its engagement with communities and women and youth groups seeking to empower them and enhance their influential civil and political participation to understand their rights and undertake collective activism to address the protracted rights violations resulting from the prolonged occupation of Palestine. AAP works simultaneously to enhance their leadership capacity and knowledge to practice their citizenship in holding authorities and other duty bearers to account.
For more information, please contact
Riham Jafari
Coordinator of Advocacy and Communication in Palestine
Mobile:
+972 (0) 595242890
Office:
+972 (0) (2) 22 13 137
Email: