Gaza School Uniform Dream Under Siege

Tag : uniform fabrics
GAZA CITY  Um Jihad's heart was bleeding as she pulled her tearfulnine-year-old daughter away from a shop's window displaying amodest school uniform of blue and white striped smock.
"She wants a new school uniform but the prices are insane," thehelpless Gazan mother told IslamOnline.net with a deep sigh offrustration, with Sondos to her side gazing at the not-so-far shop.
Like most in the sealed off coastal strip, which Israel has beenisolating from the outside world since June 2007, Um Jihad'shusband has been unemployed for months.
The little money they have could not cover new school uniforms forall their five children.
"The market is almost empty, and the few shops still opened havemindboggling prices," Um Jihad said.
"To buy a single uniform we need about $100."
For Adham, a father of six school kids, the question of buyingschool uniforms is simply irrelevant.
"If I buy uniforms for all my kids I will end up bankrupt."
The new school year is scheduled to begin in Gaza on August 25,with many local and international groups trying to offer help forstruggling parents to pay for uniforms and school supplies.
The Islamic charity in Gaza has launched a project to provideuniforms for children of Gaza's impoverished families.
A charity from the United Arab Emirates has already provided some10,000 school bags for Gaza children.
Blame the Siege
Merchants and shop owners in Gaza blame the burning prices on thelong-running, watertight Israeli siege.
"It is hardly surprising that the prices have went sky-high," Ra'edAl-Haddad, a shop owner, told IOL.
"There are no fabrics, no materials. Israel is not allowinganything in.
"We can't help it. The situation is hard for us too, not only theparents."
Mohammed Abu-Shanab, the head of Gaza's Sewing Shop OwnersAssociation, says Israeli occupation authorities halted garmentsand sewing materials imports months ago.
Only some ready-to-wear cloths, certainly not enough to dress theterritory's 1.6 million residents, are allowed in, he added.
Many families had hoped the Egyptian-brokered truce between Israeland resistance factions would breathe new life in the strip.
"Israel is rather tightening the siege around us," fumes EmadAl-Galabi, an employee.
"We really thought the truce would help," Um Saleh Ghazal somberlyagreed.
"Instead, we are left with no goods, no cloths. The soaring pricesare salting our wounds."