[Palestine]Nida and her Journey of Patience and Diligence
Nida Al-Zaeem is a 35-year-old Palestinian mother of four children (two daughters and two sons), who obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Technology Management in 2014. With her childlike features, Nida appears as a steadfast mountain, persistent in the face of many ordeals that overweighed her shoulders prematurely. Her words sounds as those of an old woman as she has lived through many wars, including 2008, 2014, 2019 and 2021: “The region is like a volcano. It will witness more wars and bloody conflicts that will destroy everything without mercy for the weak entity of women, children and the elderly.”
Nida from Gaza
Nida is not a traditional mother like other mothers. She always seeks to provide a decent life for her children through her work in the field of motion graphics, content writing, editor and interpreter with many local companies temporarily and intermittently, in order to obtain a good income that would help her to provide the basic needs of her family and help her husband in establishing her small house. In a faint voice, Nida says, “I have bought an apartment of 130 square meters in Al-Jawhara Tower in the center of Gaza City since 2007, and since that time I have been working to buy furniture and design the house in a joyful way”.
Nida continues with tears in her eyes, “Unfortunately, I could never imagine the nightmare on 12/5/2021 at 8:30 p.m. I heard the sound of explosions in several areas surrounding the house, and I heard an explosion in the tower where I live. There were 64 residential apartments and offices for doctors, lawyers and private companies. A reconnaissance missile was a warning to evacuate the tower from the residents, to be bombed by the Israeli Occupation with eight missiles.” At that time, Nida and her children were visiting her mother, and as she heard about that, she quickly as light rushed to arrive to her house in order to save some personal papers and private belongings, but the Palestinian Civil Defense prevented her, fearing for her and her husband’s lives. The Israeli warplanes continued to bombard Al-Jawhara tower with many rockets and missiles from all directions for 6 hours straight.
Nida reports, “I was seeing my dream collapsing in front of me when I saw the shells destroying my photography shop in the same Al-Jawhara Tower. I worked on establishing the shop equipping it with 3 laptops, 4 cameras, furniture and decorations to prepare a modern studio for photography and design. The shells came to destroy the tower and the shop at 2:30 in the morning. The Occupation destroyed my livelihood and social life, and dispersed dozens of families living in this tower for more than 10 years. But they could not destroy my dream that is rooted in my heart and my being. I will continue to build this dream again in order to achieve great success.”
Nida says with deep sadness, “My eldest daughter, 17 years old, felt severe shock, fear, anxiety and tension due to the heavy bombardment, which caused her to have bouts of crying and disturbing nightmares at night.” Also, she states that her young son, who is 8 years old, was suffering from fever, vomiting and inability to speak as a result of the intense fear of the continuous bombardment.
She explains “I had difficulty in providing protection and support for my children because I could not control myself, I was psychologically tired and still suffered from severe psychological pressure. Me and my children need psychological support to relieve post-traumatic symptoms.”
And continues, “I still need financial and in-kind assistance. This assistance is not yet sufficient as it was limited in providing some bedding for the children and rental allowance for a short period. I need also a support that will enable me to revive my project so that I can obtain a good income in order to build my house. Every day there are promises from several international institutions for the reconstruction, but to no avail”.
Nida’s voice expresses pain, “My children feel dispersed and unsettled due to the displacement, living in a rented house and not providing their basic needs of school materials, clothes, and household furniture. My children feel alienated in a rented house devoid of the basic necessities of life.” Nida indicates that the humanitarian aid available in the Gaza Strip for those affected by the Israeli Offensives is limited and not sufficient for all those affected people, as there is a large number of people who need urgent humanitarian assistance. She has resorted to many institutions to obtain in-kind assistance, but to no benefit.
She reports that Peace Wind Japan and IOCC helped her in providing food, hygiene and kitchen kits, and that she could respond to some basic needs for her home. She says, “This assistance through PWJ has eased the financial burden of the family, especially for kitchen purposes. For the first time, I received humanitarian assistance from an International organization.”
She adds, “I was treated with great respect and dignity when I received relief materials from PWJ and IOCC. I was also involved in a needs assessment group session to discuss the required needs of the household.”
“I thank the Japanese people for this generous support, which contributes to alleviating the burden on my family and providing important food and hygiene for all family members.”
She invites Japan Platform and Peace Winds Japan to implement this project again to reach other affected and poor families. Currently, the project is providing food, hygiene and kitchen items to 930 families that were directly affected by the war in May 2021.
Gaza Strip, which has been besieged for 15 years, needs emergency humanitarian and development aid and work to end the siege on the Gaza Strip.