Palestine : PWJ began cash-for-work program to support youth in Gaza

PWJ’s newest project is located in northern Gaza, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, where people and communities are still severely suffering from the 2014 Israeli-Gaza Conflict, which was started in June 2014 and lasted for 51 days.  Although it’s been more than 20 months since the conflict ended, many families are finding their lives very difficult to survive.

In Gaza, though food and household goods are available at stores, a lot of people cannot afford them because they have no cash to pay and jobs are very scarce.  Especially young adults tend have higher unemployment rate because most of them lack work experiences.

PWJ’s cash-for-work program aims to support youth ages between 22 and 25, by providing short-term employment opportunity in the areas of education and social services, providing not only opportunities for an income so they can purchase daily necessary items, but they also gain work experiences.  This way, youth will gain the sense of self-sufficiency and be able to contribute to the civil society, while strengthening the capacity of the civil organizations they work for.

This project was started in December 2015 in northern Gaza, Khan Yunus, and Rafah provinces, in collaboration with International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) as a partner.  IOCC has long history of successful humanitarian programs helping people in Gaza since 1997.