A Call brings hope back
Days go on very slowly with Randa Breik(27) a mother of four. Worry is not leaving her, day and night as she keeps looking for opportunity to secure her children a decent life, especially after the death of her husband while she is still young.

Randa’s suffers from severe economic and living strains. She lives with her kids in one room at shared house with her husband’s family and brothers-in-law. The house lacks the basic elements necessary for a decent life. However, Randa spares no effort to improve the living conditions of her family.

She tells “Before my husband died, he used to collect plastic and reused bricks, but we did not have enough money to meet my family’s needs, we used to be poor even before his death”.

Randa decided to work after she graduated from high school in order to assist her husband in sustaining the family, and to provide the needs of her elder mother-in-law who is suffering from physical disabilities.
“I started to work as a teacher at a kindergarten for only 200 NIS, which worth ( 55$ ) a month, but after a while my husband fell ill with cancer and was unable to work. My family’s expenses were increasing and I had to bear the very expensive costs of medication and treatment to my husband in addition to expenses of our daily needs and education expenses.”
Randa has gone through another journey of pain, she started to work in a private company for cleaning services to work as a cleaner in one of the hospitals in the Gaza Strip with a monthly salary of 600 NIS, which worth 165 USD a month.
She continues “When I started to work in my new job, I was watching the nurses inside the hospitals and I felt jealous and sad and said to myself: If I were not in my bad financial conditions, I would have worked like them”.

Randa didn’t give up to her tough life, she said “I have challenged all the circumstances and with the encouragement of the nurses at the hospital, I have decided to complete my studies and I have really obtained a certificate that qualifies me to work as a midwife”.

Randa tolerated great burdens to complete her studies. She worked at night and continued her studies in the morning, after completing her studies, she had to return quickly to the house to take care of her children, her ill husband and his disabled mother.
During her work as a cleaner at the hospital, she has never forgotten her dream to have a new job opportunity with a better salary in her field of study.

She ardently continues”I used to be very scared as the phone rings fearing that the caller might be someone I borrowed money from to save our living expenses and the costs of treatment to ask me to repay my debts. But many thanks to Allah, I received a call that changed my life and gave me back hope. “I did not believe myself when I was called by Islamic Relief telling me that I have got the opportunity to work with Cash for Work project which is funded by the Swedish Development Agency SIDA.”
She adds “I cannot describe the joy and the feeling that overwhelmed me when I received the call, because for the first time I will work by my university degree. I will not wear the cleaners uniform anymore. I will wear the nurse uniform and work in the profession I love.”

Randa’s husband passed away in the first month she has got a temporary job opportunity saying, “I wish my husband was still alive. We were both waiting for the first salary.”
“As soon as I got my salary, I paid off some of the accumulated debt and bought the foods my children were asking for. You brought joy to all our hearts.”
She clarifies “Now I can buy my children enough eggs for the whole month not for a day or two.”
She continues” the nutritional level for my children has been improved. In the past, I was not able to bring meat and chicken to them. Now we are cooking meat once a week.”

Although she is happy to receive a job that enabled her to provide a decent living for her children, but still there is pain surrounds her, especially that the house where she lives is very weak house and it leaks by rains and sanitation every winter.
This is in addition to having several difficulties in continuing to live at a shared house with her husband’s family after his death, which is not consistent with customs and traditions in the Gaza Strip, as well as the difficulty of moving to her father’s house who’s also suffering a bad financial conditions . She is even afraid to become homeless at any time after the loss of the breadwinner.
Moving to a separate house preserves Randa and children to live in a greater privacy. It is a dream that Randa hopes to find someone to support her to become a reality.