“The shelling began in the night. My husband and sons were in the bakery, preparing bread for the following morning. I lost all three of them and our shop was destroyed.”
The wife of a baker, Mrs. Ali had three children. Theirs was modest but contented life on the outskirts of Gaza, until Israeli forces shelled their bakery. In a single night, Mrs. Ali and her daughter, Shah, lost their family and their livelihood. In the months that followed, mother and daughter were forced to beg in the streets. Al Mustafa Welfare Trust’s (AMWT) Gaza team, found Shah Ali and her mother some years ago, during one of our aid camps. Desperate and in dire straits, Mrs. Ali asked our team if there was something we could do for her daughter. Our ground staff enrolled Shah on AMWT’s Orphan Sponsorship programme, and it wasn’t long before her sponsorship came through. Today, Shah is 12 years-old. Her sponsorship doesn’t just allow her to attend school, it also covers living expenses for herself and her mother. It allows us to provide them with food and clothing. It even means we can provide Shah with basic healthcare. Palestine is home to thousands of war orphans like Shah Ali. Their broken families continue to suffer in the grip of an ongoing humanitarian crisis. Without support, these orphans and widows simply have no one else to depend on