Resourceful Gazans create work to overcome economic hardship

Resourceful Gazans create work to overcome economic hardship

GAZA CITY: Seeking a path out of the Gaza Strip’s grinding poverty, Islam Abu Taima combs market alleyways for scraps of cardboard, hoping to transform the castoffs into sellable toys. Poverty in the conflict-wracked Palestinian territory, a thin strip of land wedged between Zionist entity, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, has hit a rate of 53 percent, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. Work opportunities are scarce in Gaza, which has been under a crippling Zionist entity-led blockade since the Islamist movement Hamas took power in 2007, and Abu Taima, an English literature graduate, has struggled to find a job. She lives with her husband Mohammed, who is also unemployed, in Al-Shati refugee camp where they began making toys for their five children because “the children keep asking” for them.

Abu Taima’s husband “started making bicycles and a small car for them to play with”. “They were happy and we found them lovely,” said the 39-year-old, whose home lacks running water or electricity. She now sells their creations for five to 10 shekels ($1.40 to $2.80) a piece on pavements in central Gaza’s more affluent areas. Abu Taima and her husband also use their creative skills to make models