More than 900 orphaned girls and boys registered with the UNRWA Orphan Programme will receive critical assistance through a new contribution agreement signed with Muslim Hands UK.

UNRWA said this is the third partnership launched with Muslim Hands in 2023, totaling more than US$ 1.2 million (£982,000) in funding for interventions vital to the wellbeing of thousands of refugees living in the blockaded Gaza Strip.

Through the “Towards a Decent Standard of Living” project, 920 orphaned Palestine Refugee children will receive US$ 700 in cash assistance for the year. This is the third iteration of this project, which provides relief to orphans living amid rising poverty and hardship.

A second contribution will support more than 5,630 food-insecure refugees with a quarterly food parcel; And the third project being sponsored by Muslim Hands UK will provide more than 190 refugees with temporary job placements totaling about 15,000 hours through the UNRWA Cash for Work programme.

Muslim Hands UK is an international aid agency and non-governmental organization founded in 1993 initially to support victims of the Bosnian war. Since then, the organization has launched offices in 30 countries, responding to countless emergencies and sponsoring education, healthcare and livelihood programmes.

According to the World Food Programme, more than 1.78 million Palestinians across the occupied Palestinian territories are food insecure. Nearly 1.1 million of those are classified as severely food insecure, and reside in the Gaza Strip where UNRWA supports more than 1.2 million refugees through quarterly food distributions.

In 2023, the Agency aims to further mitigate food insecurity by offering short-term employment opportunities to approximately 46,000 Palestine refugees. Participants are paid in the local currency and will range from the equivalent of US$ 10 to US$ 20 per day, depending on the skill level, number of working days per week and type of work.

Data from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) indicates that the unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip reached 46 per cent during the first quarter of 2023.