From The Al Shata Refugee Camp in Gaza Comes the Humanitarian Story of Sohad Hasi

"My late husband Jawad has abandoned his fishing tools... he won't be bringing the colorful, all shapes and sizes fish to the house anymore... our children Mohamed, Ahmed and Abdullah will keep waiting for their dad to come back home."

This is how Sohad, a recent window that turned 27 few months ago started her conversation, holding her tears back so that the children won't see her crying. She told us that they moved from her husband's family overcrowded house only ten days before he died. UNRWA offered them a small apartment due to economical crises the family was undergoing; especially that Jawad, before he died, had stopped working ever since Israel prohibited fishing in the Sea of Gaza.

"We all had felt so happy and thrilled after UNRWA offered the small apartment for us, but this happiness could not continue. We had our own space with and extra room for the children, which is better than the one-room house in the camp where we used to live, where rain could come through in the winter, and it become like an oven in the summer."

Jawad passed away when he was out buying milk for our two-year son, Abdullah, from a shop just next to his parents' house. On his way back, he was fatally injured when an air strike targeted the nearby Shat'a Camp with missiles.

Retelling the incident, Sohad said, "I saw the bombing from our balcony.. I only saw a young man dying alone because people could not intervene for help due to the smoke. I was thinking to myself, that god helps the parents and the family of this young man. When the scene became clearer, I recognized the clothes. He was my husband Jawad. I ran down the street toward him. I was shouting so he could hear me. The ambulance came and I was with him. I begged him to wake up, to open his eyes, but he was just sleeping with a smile on his face".

Sohad waited for 2 hours in the hospital. The injuries that Jawad got were beyond severe: 3 in the head and 13 in the rest of his body. The doctors requested that she leaves the hospital; there was no room for people who are not injured or dead. She left the hospital. One her way back to her house, she started talking to herself: "I was asking myself what kind of a future will I have? My oldest son is 8 years old and my youngest is one year and 8 months old. As soon as I came inside the house, they informed me that Jawad died".

"Jawad is now relieved from the misery we live in", said Sohad. She moved back to her parent's house, where she is mourning her loss. "I always dreamt of having my own house, now, I can't, despair is my future and my children will live their lives as orphans, and I have no education and I have never worked in my life." She talks in despair."

"I can't concentrate any more", Sohad told us. "I'm thinking about my sons' lives and their well being; we barely making enough money to survive and we don't have any additional source of income. No one has helped me before; Human Concern International is the first sign of hope I see now. I'm so happy with all the help I received from you, as my children need help and care. I'm relieved because I know that my children will eat for at least 10 days - thanks to you, so please don't forget us."

I left Sohad and her sons taking the food and the hygiene items out of the box, while the children are choosing their dinner for the night. This is one of the many stories that Gaza unfolds these days. It might not be one of its most painful stories, but still it requires that we think about the future of people such as Sohad and her sons and the kind of future they might have without our help.

(This story is part of a series of personal stories, compiled by Eman Khader, depicting the state of despair and hope seen in Gaza today. They have been compiled by HCI personnel during HCI's relief and development work in the worst-hit areas in and around Gaza City. Through an at-home-needs assessment and extensive outreach activities each family received a parcel consisting of 27 food and hygiene items which were put together in partnership with HCI's local partner in Gaza, The Aid and Hope Centre for the Care of Cancer Patients and their Families. Forty-eight local volunteers are helping make this project possible.)