Bombing forced Hazem Rahma to flee Gaza City with the children in his care. But the attacks continue – and there are more and more children to look after
Hazem Rahma, 39, is a director at Mubarrat Al Rehmat orphanage inI’m from Rimal, in Gaza City. My wife and I have worked at the orphanage since 2010. Before the war, we had 22 children. Most of them have no traceable family and many are disabled. They usually come to us at birth from hospitals because their families can’t afford to take care of them. Five of our wards are girls who are over 18, but since they have no families they stay with us.
We decided to leave in December, after the bombing. I felt we had no choice. The neighbours helped us by carrying the children to a big apartment in the south of the city owned by my friend. There was artillery everywhere and the children were very scared. After that, we waited for a pause in the fighting to go further south. We almost ran out of food. We had to get volunteers – strangers – to carry the children down the evacuation road to the south.
We went to Khan Younis first. I tried to build tents for the kids; some people there helped, God bless them. But there was another airstrike nearby and some of us were injured. For now, we are physically fine. There are lots of people here volunteering to help, the children have clean clothes and the tents are OK. It is better than for a lot of people. Some aid workers are bringing most of what we need. A major challenge is food. We are always trying to find milk formula and nappies. A few boxes of formula cost $2,000 .
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