Gaza: Repairing Homes, Restoring Dignity

This little boy stands in his home in Gaza City. The wall behind him was blown open during Operation Cast Lead, the three-week military conflict in late December 2008 and early January 2009.

Nearly two years later, his home has yet to be repaired. Inside his home, the kitchen sink is in ruins — destroyed by the shelling. The solar water heater on the roof? Also destroyed. No one in his family is employed; they all depend on limited international aid for their survival.*

Today, much of Gaza remains in ruins. A severe, Israeli-imposed blockade continues to keep out most of the materials needed to repair and rebuild homes, schools, hospitals, and universities. UUSC, along with many other organizations around the world, has called this situation a crisis of human dignity. 

In response to this crisis, UUSC began working with youth in Gaza to reconstruct their communities and homes. That project of small-scale home repairs has now grown into a detailed evaluation of the most common and critical damage to residential homes, followed by suggestions for viable, safe, and dignified repair options that use locally available tools and resources.

The key concern in this work is dignity, rather than the costs of damages and repairs. What damages most impact people's ability to live in dignity and safety? What repairs will most quickly restore some measure of dignity and safety to people's lives? Those repairs are our priority.

We recently released this information in a report — Gaza Repair Strategies — which is permanently available on the Open Architecture Network, an online, open-source site for innovative design. We will share this information widely with those who can make a difference in Gaza. We hope this will continue to raise awareness about the situation in Gaza and increase the access that communities there have to the resources they need to repair homes and restore dignity.

* Recent U.N. reports shows that over 75 percent of families in Gaza suffer food insecurity. Unemployment remains high. Nearly 90 percent of water is unsafe to drink. Every day, up to 82 million gallons of raw sewage is being dumped into the sea.