By Juliette Seibold
March 26, 2009

Al Bureij Refugee Camp, Gaza Strip – Samira D'eyer is a 39-year-old widow. She has 11 children: four boys and seven girls aged between 23 and seven. The family lives in Al Bureij refugee camp in Gaza in a dilapidated building that has just two small rooms, a kitchen and a little bathroom. At night the boys sleep in the room downstairs and the girls, upstairs. Although the walls are bare concrete, mottled with damp, the house is spotlessly clean. At 8.30 in the morning, three daughters, Nor, Samira and Yasmin are busy scrubbing the floors and washing up with their mother.

Although Samira is receiving a little assistance from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), it's not enough to make ends meet.

Osama Slahe, a volunteer with a local relief organisation who works with CARE identifying the most vulnerable families in Gaza says: “It is impossible for a widow with 11 children to survive on a partial ration of food. They need much more help especially if they are dealing with disabled family members. They also need contact with outsiders who care and can listen to their problems.”

Samira has a handicapped child called Ahmed, aged 20, who goes to a special school. But now she also has a 19-year-old daughter who is confined to a wheelchair after shrapnel from the recent Israeli bombardment lodged deep in her legs.

Samira says: “This shrapnel seemed to come out of nowhere straight through our door and Hiba just happened to be standing there. It's too soon to tell if she'll walk again. But she is so brave and full of life. Even though she's in pain, she is determined to go to school to finish her education. She's a miracle, this girl of mine. So bright and happy, no matter what happens.”

CARE's food basket, which is delivered to particularly vulnerable families in Gaza, is funded by the European Commission Humanitarian aid department (ECHO). It's a lifeline that provides food that lasts a family like Samira's for three days.

“If I didn't have this help,” says Samira, “We wouldn't get fresh vegetables and I wouldn't be able to buy clothes and shoes for the children.”

When the conflict started Dec. 27, the people of Gaza had already been suffering under an 18-month blockade that limited the amount of food and supplies that could be transported in and out of Gaza. During the 22-day bombardment, what remained of Gaza's private industry was almost totally destroyed, and much of the farmland was left unusable, littered with craters and unexploded bombs.

This has left many ordinary families without any income to provide for themselves. Today, more than 88 percent of Gazans rely on some form of food assistance.

In the Al Bureij refugee camp, CARE provides fresh food to 50 families with disabled people and a further 200 large families who have no wage earner.

Overall, the CARE/ ECHO food basket provides food to a total of 60,000 people in Gaza. Each week, each family receive 20 kg of vegetables: 7kg tomatoes, 5kg potatoes, 3 kg onions, 3kg cucumber, and 2.5 kg squash. Families with more than 12 members get 30 kg. The program also provides an income to 1,400 small shareholder farmers in Gaza who supply the vegetables, helping to support the local economy and promote recovery.

CARE needs more funds to augment this program as there are so many families in Gaza who are now in desperate need.