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An uncertain future: Visiting the families remaining in UNRWA shelters

29 May 2015

It is very different from the days during last summer’s conflict and the following months, when thousands of internally-displaced persons (IDPs) lived in overcrowded conditions – sharing toilets, kitchens and classrooms while trying to maintain a sense of privacy and dignity by dividing classrooms with hanging blankets. Only three families are left living in the UNRWA collective centre in Rimal, Gaza city. Yet their future is uncertain.

“It is hard to accept that one classroom is the place where you and your family are expected to sit, eat, play and sleep for an unknown period of time,” said 34-year-old refugee Hazar Abu Jazar. 

Hazar’s comment reflects the feelings of many of the over 3,560 IDPs still living in the remaining eight UNRWA-run collective centres. Due to a serious lack of funds, as of 18 May, over 61,000 refugee families who have been assessed as eligible for assistance have still not received rental subsidy payments, the first or second payment installments for home repairs, or a US$ 500 reintegration grant.

“I am tired of living in a classroom; I need my life to back. The war ruined my life, stole my peace, my dignity and my stability,” Hazar added.

UNRWA calls on donors to fulfil the promises made at the Cairo Conference for reconstruction of Gaza in October 2014. To date, US$ 216 million has been pledged in support of the UNRWA emergency shelter programme, compared with the required total of US$ 720 million. This leaves a current shortfall of US$ 504 million.

Refugee Hazar Abu Jazar, sitting next to her son on a mattress in the classroom that has been her home for the past eight months, explained how she dreamed about leaving the collective centre and moving back to her old home. Yet once when she arrived at her home, she realized everything was destroyed. “The door of the house was closed as I left it, but when I opened it, nothing remained, everything was destroyed. There was complete emptiness,” she said. © 2015 UNRWA Photo by Khalil Adwan“Soon I will have a kitchen, a bathroom, maybe a living room,” said refugee Suher Farwan when pondering her family’s future. The Farwan family has sheltered in the Rimal collective centre since the beginning of the conflict. They hope they will soon receive rental subsidy payments through UNRWA so they can move out of the collective centre and into rental accommodation until they have completed repairs on their home in Shujjaiya in eastern Gaza city. © 2015 UNRWA Photo by Khalil AdwanMona El Serawi, 36 (right), fled with her family from the extensively-shelled neighbourhood of Shujjaiya to the UNRWA collective centre in Rimal at beginning of the 2014 conflict. They have now sheltered there for over eight months. “I hope so much that we can soon move out and have our own house and space. We have been waiting so long already. However, it will be difficult to say goodbye to the other families, with whom we went through such difficult times,” she said. © 2015 UNRWA Photo by Khalil Adwan“When we lost our home, it was like we lost our dreams, our existence and our value as human beings,” recalled 37-year-old refugee Sami Mahmoud Sa’ad, as he stood in the tiny classroom where he has spent eight months together with his wife and five children. The family received a rental subsidy from UNRWA and moved out of the collective centre. “It will take years to get rid of the bitterness inside me over what happened to my family and my children,” he said. © 2015 UNRWA Photo by Khalil Adwan

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