What It Means to Be a Child in Gaza

The first thing that struck me whilst in Gaza, was how young people were everywhere. Over half of the population in Gaza is under 18 years old, making it one of the youngest populations in the world. I clearly remember seeing kids, literally, just everywhere I went. They were running around in the streets, chasing each other; building structures with sand by construction sites, and they were bending in circles, playing marbles around their residences. By their concentration and cries of excitement each time a boy’s carefully selected marble struck a score, I figured that this was their favourite game. I was told they play it a lot during winter.

Thus it would seem only logical to guess that during any military incursion, children would be heavily affected. During the recent 51-day Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip, 501 out of the 1,473 Palestinian civilians killed were children. More than 3,000 children were injured, 54,000 were left homeless, and 1,500 were orphaned.

A single dead Israeli child is a tragedy but 501 dead Palestinian children is just a statistic. Every single child is precious and the genocide has deprived 501 children of their right to live like any other child and families of their sons and daughters.

Let us try to begin to understand what it means to grow up as a child in Gaza.

Playing by the beach means risking your life

I was also told that the beach was a favourite vacation spot for Gazans. It was a therapeutic escape from the harsh realities of the blockade. That was until the beach too became a dangerous place. Zakaria Ahed Bakr, 10, Ahed Atef Bakr, 10, Mohammed Ramez Bakr, 11, and Ismail Mohammed Bakr, 9 were playing soccer by the beach, and were shot mercilessly by Israeli missiles during the most recent massacre. If even the beach is no longer a safe place for kids to have fun and play, where else?

Doing homework in the dark is a norm

The electricity crisis has hit Gaza since 2006. Most of the households receive about 12 hours of electricity per day at most. Those 12 hours are considered a luxury. The unfortunate households typically get only up to 6 hours of electricity per day. Their everyday lives have to be adjusted according to the electricity schedule. I visited one of our family friend’s house in Gaza, I saw kids doing their homework with the lights from the solar lamps which Viva Palestina Malaysia donated a couple of years back. It brought a smile upon my face. A friend’s child was trying to explain to me in Arabic, with the help of some sign language, how she preferred a particular type of solar lamp as it was brighter for her; hence, she was able to study better. When I was younger, I can recall using ‘no electricity’ as an excuse not to complete my homework.

Drinking water may kill too

More than 90 percent of the water in Gaza was declared as being too contaminated for drinking purposes by several UN Agencies. Gaza‘s sole water source is chemically contaminated with dangerous levels of chlorides, nitrates and other pollutants, some far in excess of WHO guidelines. Infants and young children are especially physically vulnerable to the immediate effects of microbiological contamination, which are diarrhoea and vomiting that will then lead to dehydration.

Going back to school is a reminder of bombings and destruction

Twenty-six schools were completely destroyed. And hundreds were damaged during the recent aggression, Many UNRWA schools served as temporary shelters for more than 55,000 displaced persons. All of the 474,000 school going children and 55,003 kindergarten-aged children were deprived of any form of education, as schools and pre-school facilities were unable to open on their scheduled date. When they were finally able to go back to school, they were met with the brutal scars of the aggression – shattered window glasses, large holes on the walls, shattered surrounding buildings, ruined playgrounds, dead school mates, and much more. When I was in Gaza in 2013, I personally visited 11 schools to audit our VPM project of rehabilitation of schools in North Gaza that were affected by the war in 2009. It was the warmest feeling ever, seeing the smiles of the school children enjoying their newly refurbished schools and their new laboratories, libraries and sports facilities.

Being an eight-year-old in Gaza means you have witnessed at least three wars in your life

Psychologically, that is very disturbing. Disturbing is actually an understatement. It could be indeed detrimental to one’s mental health. The intense psychosocial stress caused by violence has deeply affected the children and at least 373,000 have already been identified as suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and are in need of psychosocial support. Death, injury and homelessness have created a population of orphans, children with disabilities and children in need of child protection services. In addition, child abuse amongst the displaced persons has also become increasingly prevalent as a result of overcrowding and lack of privacy in shelters – a situation that raises the potential for children’s exposure to violence, abuse and neglect.

Going to the hospital for treatment, may also lead to death

A one-day attachment at a children’s hospital in Gaza was a most revealing experience and it motivated me to work even harder to help this extremely vulnerable population. Many of the patients could only be managed with supportive and palliative care, as definitive treatment was not available. Many drugs, surgical appliances, disposables and medical equipment were either scarce or simply unavailable. A baby that is born with a congenital malformation and requires urgent surgery will need to be transferred to Israeli hospitals. This would incur a high expense which many Gazan families could ill afford. Others might opt to transfer to a cheaper alternative in Egypt which is, however, hampered by the blockade at the Rafah crossings. The children of Gaza are deprived of their basic human right of access to a safe and appropriate health care facility.

Poverty, food insecurity, insufficient micronutrient supplementation are among the factors contributing to chronic malnutrition among children. Based on Ard El Insan (AEI) project statistics of the last 3 years (2011-2013), the prevalence of severe and moderate anemia among children under 5 was 29.4 percent. 8.6 per cent of children under five were identified as wasted and 14.6 per cent were identified as growth faltering cases. These micronutrient deficiencies, or also called “hidden hunger”, can cause serious and irreversible cognitive and developmental deficits, especially amongst young children

But, to live is also to hope

The face of a pretty 8-year-old girl I met at the hospital was playing in my subconscience while I’m writing this piece. She had just undergone a major surgery to remove a large mass from her abdomen that could possibly be a tumour. Despite that, she was still able to smile when I spoke to her and gave her a few personal gifts. The smile on her face really showed how these innocent children do not harbour any form of hate but simply yearned for a playful and enjoyable life, a childhood safe and protected from the atrocities and brutalities of the games adults play. This little, and beautiful soul taught me to be brave, resilient and to smile in the face of adversity. Her beautiful smiling face will forever be etched in my memory bank and will be my inspiration to continue to serve the cause of these most unfortunate children of Gaza.

How can you help?

A few noble efforts that I can suggest:

http://www.vpm.org.my – we have a few projects for children which include rehabilitation for the disabled children, back to school project, solar lamp project
http://islamic-relief.org.my/e-khairat/sponsor-a-child/ – sponsor an orphan with just less than RM300 a month
https://www.mecaforpeace.org/ – this particular organization has a special project to build playground for the children in Palestine
http://www.pcrf.net/ – medical treatments for children in Palestine particularly amongst the refugees

References:

Dr. Husna Dato’ Musa is a paediatrician-in-training, founding activist of Viva Palestina Malaysia, and chairs the VPM medical committee. After her mission to Gaza in 2012, she published a book ‘Remember Us’ as part of the project of the Friendship Committee of Viva Palestina Malaysia, where she co-edited and contributed four stories. www.rememberusstories.com.