Easing the Burden for Gaza's Disabled

Twelve-year-old Wala Al Bora’i has been paralyzed since she was 5. She doesn't attend school because her family can't afford special transportation. Photo: Mercy Corps

Twelve-year-old Wala Al Bora'i lives with her parents and eight siblings in a simple second-story home in Gaza. Young Wala has used a wheelchair since she was paralyzed in a car accident at the age of 5. This disability hasn't broken her spirit, but the extra care and supplies she requires has nearly bankrupted her already impoverished family.

Wala's family is one of thousands now struggling to make ends meet in Gaza's worsening economic crisis. Today, they need your help to persevere in a place where hope is fading fast.

Already some of the poorest people in the Middle East, Gaza's 1.3 million residents are now facing even more dire humanitarian straits. Hospitals are without basic medicines, food is rotting at closed checkpoints and prices are rising quickly for staple ingredients like chickpeas and sugar. Thirty-five percent of citizens here depend on wages from the Palestinian Authority, which has not paid them in two months. A recent World Bank study says without aid, the percentage of families in poverty in the West Bank and Gaza will jump from 44 percent to 67 percent by year's end.

The crisis is hitting people with disabilities especially hard. Handicap International warns of a collapsing healthcare system that will soon find it impossible to provide necessary treatments, vital equipment and rehabilitation and therapy to people with disabilities.

For Wala, the financial cost of her spinal cord injury is steep. What's more, she resides in a region largely unaccommodating to people like her. She is unable to continue her education, for instance, because her father, a taxi driver, can't afford to pay the fare of a wheelchair-accessible taxi to ferry her to and from school.

Mercy Corps, in partnership with the local Jabalia Rehabilitation Society, is helping Wala's family and others in similar circumstances ease their staggering financial load. Today, Wala is one of roughly 80 people with disabilities receiving hygiene supplies that allow her to live with dignity.

The five mentally disabled daughters of 70-year-old Um Shaheen are also receiving much-needed supplies. Shaheen is the sole caretaker for her daughters, aged 25 to 40, and relies mainly on public assistance to get by.

In response to the Gaza crisis, Mercy Corps is directing its efforts toward helping people such as Wala, Um Shaheen and others considered most vulnerable. The disabled, widows and poor families with small children are the ones who bear the brunt of the economic crisis in Gaza. Please consider a gift today.