Global Fund's Response to the Crisis In Gaza
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- Whether man made or natural disasters, the Global Fund is always quick to respond to check on grantee partners, transmit our solidarity through a letter, and ensure their safety. Throughout the war on Gaza, we stayed in touch with grantees through email, text messages, and phone calls when possible to get updates and to better understand the situation.
- Given that our grants are for general support, we include in the letter a reminder to grantees that they have the option to use any funds remaining in their account from the grant towards needed relief or emergency services. The situation in Gaza was extremely difficult. Because all borders were closed and all neighborhoods targeted, civilians were unable to flee. In addition, grantees had no access to stores to buy food and other aid or banks to withdraw money if they wanted to provide any type of emergency or relief aid.
- We connected several of our grantees to our sister organization, the Urgent Action Fund, which was able to provide three grants that went towards documenting human rights violations against women during this war. We also worked with other strategic partners to ensure that the situation receives adequate attention.
- We created a special section on our website that provided action alert, news articles, and information so that individuals interested in providing immediate relief aid and support would know where to turn.· We highlighted our Crisis Fund as an immediate response with a long-term vision. The site also provided space for voices from the ground of our grantees in Gaza, Israel and others who stood in solidarity with them.
- As the war continued, our President and CEO, Kavita Ramdas issued a letter [link to KNR’s letter] of solidarity to the grantees that we also posted on our website. This was followed by a statement from our Board of Directors [link to Statement], with a strong call to end all violence immediately.
- We provided a solidarity/emergency executive grant to Physicians for Human Rights to support direct aid in Gaza.
- Given the almost complete impossibility of sending any money or aid in, we agreed on a long-term strategy with our advisor in Gaza. This strategy entailed: a) doing a quick mapping of our grantees once the direct assault subsides to check on damages and casualties and thus assess whether emergency support is needed to allow groups to resume their work; b) organizing a second mapping within four months of the cessation of violence to assess whether grantee partners have needed to create new programs to address rising needs resulting from the war, including traumatic disorders to children and women, increased poverty due to death and/or homelessness, increased disabilities due to injuries, and other war-related needs, that GFW can respond by ensuring groups have the needed support to implement such activities; and c) in the coming year after the war has subsided, GFW would continue to prioritize groups in Gaza in their efforts to do long-term rebuilding of the fabric of society and reintroducing the agendas of women’s rights.
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