{"id":244989,"date":"2021-01-20T10:39:18","date_gmt":"2021-01-20T15:39:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?post_type=document&p=244989"},"modified":"2021-01-22T10:41:17","modified_gmt":"2021-01-22T15:41:17","slug":"supporting-gazans-to-afford-better-food-choices-an-opt-humanitarian-fund-success-story-ocha-article","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/supporting-gazans-to-afford-better-food-choices-an-opt-humanitarian-fund-success-story-ocha-article\/","title":{"rendered":"Supporting Gazans to Afford Better Food Choices: An oPt Humanitarian Fund Success Story – OCHA Article"},"content":{"rendered":"
Posted on\u00a020 January 2021<\/span><\/h6>\n

An oPt Humanitarian Fund success story<\/strong><\/p>\n

Assistance is first step towards a more sustainable income<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"AsAs a sole breadwinner, Mahmoud carried a heavy burden providing for his family. Photo by Mohamed Reefi for CRS.<\/h6>\n

Mahmoud Az Za\u2019aneen is the sole breadwinner in a large, 13-member family, including two elderly parents. The family lives in a small house in a town in North Gaza. Mahmoud worked as a construction painter for 12 years, but a worsening medical condition from exposure to paint chemicals hampered his ability to work. Despite his efforts, Mahmoud faced difficulties securing permanent work in the deteriorating economy in Gaza and struggled to provide food for his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have faced many problems providing food for my family and we spent many days eating only tomatoes. I had to borrow money\u2026 Most of time I couldn\u2019t buy chicken for Friday\u2019s meal, but when I could, you can\u2019t imagine how happy my children were; it was like a wedding party for them.\u201d (Mahmoud Az Za\u2019aneen)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In December 2019, Mahmoud\u2019s family was one of 1,800 families selected to receive six months of emergency assistance to purchase food and other living supplies, as part of a project of Catholic Relief Services (CRS), funded through the\u00a0occupied Palestinian territory Humanitarian Fund (oPt HF)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The assistance was a turning point in Mahmoud\u2019s life, enabling him to feed his family by purchasing food, vital living supplies and cooking fuel, while saving money to start a small business to secure a sustainable income.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of the [assistance], I managed to save some money I received from my irregular work to buy a small stall to sell vegetables. I stopped borrowing money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

With the CRS e-voucher, families can meet their priority needs enabling them to buy fresh food and living supplies from a variety of participating shops, as well as potable water and gas cylinder refills. E-vouchers can be used for food, vital living supplies and cooking fuel. \u201cFor weeks, I couldn\u2019t provide cooking gas … but through the [e-voucher] card, we can fill the cylinder and easily cook,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Mahmoud
Mahmoud buying healthy food from a local supermarket.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mahmoud felt particular relief at having enough food during the month of Ramadan fast and beyond. \u201cFor example, during Ramadan, I couldn\u2019t provide enough food for my family to break their fast. Most of the time, they had only one meal instead of two \u2026 but with the help of the programme, I used the card to buy many different food items for them to eat properly throughout the period of support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Due to its low-contact approach, CRS was able to make quick modifications to the project as COVID-19 emerged as a risk in Gaza. CRS and its vendors immediately enabled physical distancing and other protective measures so Mahmoud and his family could safely redeem their electronic voucher. \u00a0CRS also used text messages, phone calls and flyers to make sure he and his family had accurate and timely information about how to stay safe during the outbreak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted on\u00a020 January 2021 An oPt Humanitarian Fund success story Assistance is first step towards a more sustainable income As a sole breadwinner, Mahmoud carried a heavy burden providing for his family. Photo by Mohamed Reefi for CRS. Mahmoud Az Za\u2019aneen is the sole breadwinner in a large, 13-member family, including two elderly parents. The […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"template-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[2453],"document-source":[2169],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1945,2057,2005,2349],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[],"class_list":["post-244989","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-article","document-source-office-for-the-coordination-of-humanitarian-affairs-ocha","document-subject-assistance","document-subject-food","document-subject-gaza-strip","document-subject-living-conditions","entity-united-nations-system"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/244989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/244989\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=244989"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=244989"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=244989"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=244989"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=244989"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=244989"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=244989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}