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FROM THE FIELD

Gaza: Relief target scales up to 100,000 people
20 Jan 2009 12:23:46 GMT
 Source: World Vision Middle East/Eastern Europe office (MEERO)
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A Palestinian woman, who fled her house during Israel's offensive, sits beside her belongings outside a U.N.-run school in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip January 17, 2009. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA)
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A Palestinian woman, who fled her house during Israel's offensive, sits beside her belongings outside a U.N.-run school in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip January 17, 2009. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA)
World Vision MEERO, http://meero.worldvision.org

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As the dust begins to settle in Gaza following three weeks of turmoil and bloodshed, the reality of destruction, displacement and enormous need is becoming ever more clear, driving humanitarian agencies like World Vision to scale up the relief response from a target of 50,000 to 100,000 people.

Food and candles, part of World Vision's first family emergency kits for up to 9,000 people (1,144 families) will be trucked into Gaza on the next UN convoy to depart this week, depending on access through border crossings.

Child protection is a key focus in World Vision's relief and recovery response and the organisation will establish two Child Friendly Spaces in north and south Gaza where it carries out development projects, to give children a safe haven in which to play, rest and interact with other children in a more 'normalised' environment.

Despite the reported relative calm, tens of thousands of Gazans have been displaced and those that sought refuge in emergency shelters still lack blankets and mattresses. Some families are returning to their homes, but many lack the basic essentials.

Given adequate access to transport goods into Gaza, subsequent World Vision shipments will include another 15,000 family emergency kits, 8,000 blankets and 8,000 hygiene kits, which are urgently needed because of damage to infrastructure and widespread loss of basic possessions.

Yet the current humanitarian corridor is utterly inadequate for necessary relief operations, according to senior World Vision leaders in Jerusalem. 'World Vision calls on Israel to ensure unhindered, open humanitarian access to meet the needs of the people of Gaza'.

'The well-being of children and civilians in Gaza continues to be at risk as long as humanitarian access is restricted and insecurity continues', they added.

World Vision staff are beginning to survey damage and conduct rapid assessments. Already staff estimate that about 70 percent of World Vision-supported greenhouses have been fully or partially destroyed and a substantial portion of agricultural land uprooted.

Over the next six to nine months, World Vision plans to work with communities to get basic services in Gaza up and running again with potential cash for work programs for basic recovery work such as clearing debris. The organization will continue to focus on restoring livelihoods, which have been devastated by an 18-month blockade of Gaza's borders – rendering the majority of its 1.5 million residents dependent on humanitarian


[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

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[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

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Israeli soldiers sit together at a military staging area in Kibbutz Alumim, outside the Gaza Strip January 20, 2009. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, voicing shock and anger at the "heartbreaking" devastation, ...


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