Youth in Gaza Renew Their Communities

Daily life for Palestinians in Gaza remains precarious after the January 2009 cease-fire that ended Israel's 22-day offensive.

Six months later, over 8,000 homes heavily damaged or completely destroyed by bombing remain uninhabitable. Many people are still homeless, living with relatives; others live in makeshift tents. The water and sanitation infrastructure is still in disrepair. In some areas, raw sewage backflows into people's homes.

With Israel's two-year embargo of Gaza still in place, the trickle of food and other supplies into Gaza is grossly inadequate. This hampers reconstruction efforts and the return of some semblance of normalcy for Gazans.

Through generous donations to the UUSC Gaza Humanitarian Crisis Fund, UUSC is collaborating with two sister organizations, American Friends Service Committee and YouthBank, to support youth groups in Gaza to play an active role in helping their communities recover after the war.

These innovative initiatives enable youth to lead recovery efforts, with projects such as counseling trauma victims in Gaza and repairing homes.

Currently, 30 young women and men from community youth groups are training as trauma counselors. They will return to their neighborhoods to lead recovery workshops for 250 youth from 10 communities that were particularly impacted by the violence. Counselors will also lead special workshops for mothers of youth-aged children.

Through YouthBank, young people are making decisions about how resources will be used to rebuild their communities. Teams of young volunteers develop and carry out community assessments to identify families whose homes need simple but critical repairs. These teams then coordinate repair projects that prioritize single-parent families, families whose breadwinners have been injured, and elderly and ill neighbors — reaching people who might otherwise be overlooked.

UUSC is excited to support the efforts of young people in Gaza who are finding positive ways to lead the recovery of their communities. Please help us to continue this work.

Read more about the current crisis in Gaza and UUSC's work there.