Unrecognised Bedouin villages in the South
Prior to October 7th, the Bedouin community were already incredibly vulnerable with 7 of the 8 most impoverished local authorities in Israel being in Bedouin regions and food poverty being commonplace.
Alongside the loss of life and infrastructure on October 7th these issues were exacerbated for the Bedouin community and new ones arose:
– Physical safety: vulnerable to rocket attacks due to lack of adequate shelter and villages being listed as “open space” for the Iron Dome system, leaving residents exposed and causing multiple civilian casualties at the beginning of the war.
– Inadequate healthcare services and facilities. – Poverty: The initial panic buying and no access to free meals for children at school saw tens of thousands of residents short of basic foodstuffs. The majority of the community work in agriculture and are unable to work due to their physical safety and are losing their source of livelihood. – Poor basic amenities i.e. water: a large proportion of water infrastructure is above ground, not hooked up to the national network and vulnerable to rocket attacks. Our response was multi-faceted, providing emergency aid in the aftermath of the attack and advocating for systemic change to improve the safety and quality of life for these communities.Our rapid response grants have provided to thousands of families:
– First Aid Kits
– Mobile safe rooms – Food parcels – Water Tanks – Baby essentials – Cooking utensils – Tablets for homeschooling – Temporary accommodation – Therapy – Assisted them in accessing benefits they are entitled to and assisting with the bureaucracy surrounding this. – Provided thousands of educational packs with therapeutic benefits. Shatil quickly identified needs in the area, collated a list of volunteer medics in the area and provided them with medical equipment.Systemic long-term change:
Shatil and NIF grantees secured recognition of these areas as populated, providing them with coverage under the Iron Dome, sirens and 52 new bomb shelters.
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