Serving the Vulnerable

Seven year-old Amira was among the beneficiaries of a recent Mercy Corps emergency distribution in Gaza. Photo: Eyad Al Baba for Mercy Corps

Dier Al Balah, Gaza - First there was 26-year-old Helena, still recovering from five surgeries to repair a broken back that leaves her unable to stand without aid.

Ahmed, 22, was next on the list. His hope for rebuilding his shattered right leg depends on whether he can get permission to visit his doctor in Egypt.

Still to come was Amira, a 7-year-old with a paralyzing nerve disorder. She sat expressionless in her wheelchair, a thin piece of gauze covering the tracheostomy tube opening in her throat.

All three received vital medical supplies and equipment on Monday, part of a distribution to nearly 100 people with disabilities in central Gaza arranged by Mercy Corps and the Dier Al Balah Rehabilitation Society.

Poignant stories like these are a good indication of the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, where hospitals shelves sit empty, people cook with wood for lack of heating oil and the wages of 56,000 government employees haven't been paid since February.

We need your help to deliver more critical aid to people with disabilities, the elderly, widows and others who need it most.

Dangers lie ahead

"There is a serious humanitarian crisis emerging here," says Jim White, a Portland-based senior director of program operations for Mercy Corps, who is visiting the region and took part in Monday's distribution. "It's getting hot, people aren't getting paid, violence is increasing in the streets, medical supplies are getting scarce and the most vulnerable people are in desperate need."

Gaza's economy is grinding to a halt, according to information from the United Nations (UN) Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian territory. This crowded strip of land - 1.3 million people live in a six-mile-by-25-mile rectangle on the Mediterranean Sea - is now virtually sealed off from Israel and Egypt. Trucks leaving Gaza with exports have slowed to a trickle, and since mid-March, no Gazans have been allowed to leave the strip to work in Israel, according to the UN.

"We have a concern about a freefall taking place in the economy," a UN humanitarian official in Gaza told Mercy Corps.

Israel has stated the closures are necessary to protect Israeli civilians from suicide attacks and other violence, according to the UN.

Monday's distribution was the second of three by Mercy Corps and local partners, each covering a different region of Gaza. Last week, roughly 100 families with disabilities around Gaza City received medical supplies. This weekend Mercy Corps and Ard al-Insan will distribute $60,000 worth of food boxes containing flour, rice, vegetable oil, beans, yams and sugar to extremely poor households in Al Mawassi, near the Egyptian border.

In all, these three distributions will reach 1,800 persons.

Rapid response is vital

Reaching people with aid now is critical. Although the UN, European Union, Russia and the U.S. - the so-called Middle East Quartet - have pledged to deliver critical aid to the Palestinian people that does not pass through the Hamas-led government, White says it will take some time for their aid mechanism to start working.

"In the meantime, we are on the ground meeting basic needs - food, medical supplies - today," White says. "The more money we can raise, the more support we can provide to those most in need."

For Helena, Mercy Corps' support meant a new walker. For Ahmed, it was a pair of modern, properly fitting crutches to replace his old wooden rickety ones. And for Amira, it was packages of disposable diapers that allow her to live with dignity and her family to spend their money on food.