A brief video featuring RVF’s ongoing work to bring safe drinking water to displaced families in Gaza by Shams Odeh and Small Footprint Films
RVF is currently providing safe drinking water to displaced families in the midst of the terrible conflict in Gaza. RVF has been able to install and repair water desalination and filtration units at ten shelters across Gaza to date, including: three different school shelters and an UNRWA Health Center in Nuseirat; two school shelters, two divisions of the Kuwaiti Field Hospital, and the Al-Rahma Association in Khan Younis; and an UNRWA school in Rafah*, serving thousands of displaced Gazans. RVF is working to get other desalination unites up and running at other shelters and public areas throughout Gaza.
Prior to the current conflict, RVF was leading an international initiative with the support of a grant from the UAE Government to help address the water crisis in Gaza – where over 95% of Gaza’s water was unsafe to drink. The program would have provided 230,000 Gazan children and their teachers at 125 UNRWA schools have access to safe water for drinking and handwashing.
RVF was implementing the project in coordination with UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees in the Near East, and local water authorities. Installation and maintenance of the imported state-of-the-art desalination units will be localized in Gaza to strengthen on-the-ground capacity.
The project to provide safe water in Gaza follows the the introduction of two essential children’s vaccines in Gaza and the West Bank, rotavirus and pneumococcal vaccines, implemented by RVF in partnership with the Palestinian Ministry of Health and funded by the UAE and USAID.
Read more about RVF’s current projects here: https://rostropovich.org/en/news-updates/
*The water desalination unit at the school in Rafah, Gaza has now unfortunately been destroyed