The Andalusian who shelters families from Gaza in Egypt

Mounir is five years old and has already seen his house reduced to ruins by the war. His parents emphasize his “spirit of observation and intelligence”. Characteristics with which the little boy says he wants to become an inventor, but his future is uncertain. The war that broke out a year ago forced him to flee with his parents to southern Gaza. Then, while his father was searching for food, a missile wounded him with shrapnel while he was in a wheelchair. Helpless, they fled to Egypt, where the Andalusian association Himaya (to protect in Arabic) offered them refuge safe from bombs and deadly drones. Cairo is where they are trying to get by, like 13,000 other Palestinian families, but it is not easy. The head of the family cannot work due to his injuries. This is why, from Gaucín (Málaga), Rosa Peñarroya and her companions, Sonia Bocharán and Angie Carabassa, offer her a home so that she can continue to dream. This is one of four families that this association has already welcomed in Egypt in collaboration with the NGO Laud Al-Auda. All from a Gaza devastated by Israel after the Hamas attack on October 7 last year. “We were looking at the way of working in Lebanon, because we know it. We looked into rental prices, but they were very expensive. Around 500 euros for an apartment,” explains Rosa Peñarroya, president of the organization. Suddenly, Angie Carabassa, one of the members, meets a girl who goes to Cairo as a volunteer and works with young Palestinians. They paid for a room for refugee families with their money who were looking for help. We come together. “The first family arrived in August,” says Peñarroya, who points out that the price of each apartment is around 160 euros. A woman entered the first home and required surgery to stabilize her vertebrae and have metal plates installed. The intense pain wouldn’t let her move. Two of his children remained in Gaza. The woman underwent her first surgery in November without success and had to undergo another operation to remove a disc and insert a carbon prosthesis. Then a mother of three children arrived. They fled Shujaiya as the violence intensified. They sought refuge in Tel al-Hawa and Al-Shifa hospital, where they emerged surrounded by corpses before reaching Cairo after crossing the Rafah crossing. His first home was a windowless apartment on the sixth floor where the heat was scorching. The arrival of a family in one of the floors of Himaya ABCNow the four are under the aegis of this Andalusian association, which also includes a couple with four children who left Shujaiya for Al-Nasr, then for Deir al -Balah and the Rafah border. . They did not cross the border and returned to a refugee camp in Deir al-Balah. “The heavy rains filtered through the tent, and insects and pests infected the place, making our life in these conditions unbearable,” recalls the father in the association’s report. Rosa’s interest in aid began in Iraq in 2003, when she enlisted in the international aid brigades, before the war broke out. “The idea was to go there and meet the Iraqi people. We did not see women wearing hijabs or men carrying Kalashnikovs. They were normal people. We documented everything: visits to hospitals, schools, contacts with culture, with Iraqi culture… But on March 19, the bombings had already started,” he adds. She does not forget when the explosions began and many left for Spain, but she stayed there. In the morning, a group of nine people visited the hospitals and in the afternoon the places where the bombs had killed civilians. the group wrote the book “War Crimes” and was even called to the UN headquarters in New York to recount their experience. After this experience, Rosa stopped. her current partner and has two children, until 2016, with the children already older, she decides to go help the humanitarian crisis in Lesvos He arrives in Athens with 9,000 euros and finds an avalanche of people fleeing the war in. Syria She started working in refugee camps, until she realized that women with children who traveled alone were completely unprotected. “They couldn’t leave the tent at night because they were raped or kidnapped,” says this Andalusian who was considering taking the money she had and renting apartments. At first he did it alone, but eventually he created 18 houses, each with seven or more residents, because the families were so large. “What they give us, we praise. We pay for travel out of our pockets. She couldn’t do it alone, so she and her two friends formed Himaya to be able to channel help. “Everything they give us, around 22,000 euros per year from benefactors, goes to the apartments. If we have to go on trips or errands, we pay for them out of our pocket,” explains Peñarroya, the founder. In Greece, they have already finished their work. They had accommodation until the refugees obtained family reunification in European countries. “We only have one apartment left,” adds Peñarroya, who assures that they are welcoming a mother of four from Congo, but that the commitment to her is six months with a rent of 500 euros per month. Then Afghanistan arrived and several families took refuge in Pakistan, including women fleeing the Taliban regime. “This is where we still collaborate, paying the rent and even helping families to go to other countries with plane tickets, it depends on where they get the visas,” recalls this volunteer, whose reports include several families whose destination is Madrid. Additionally, there is another one in Türkiye, but it is becoming independent from Himalaya next month. This is a family of Kurds, whose father has a stable job and who are already in a situation where they can provide for themselves. He tried to enter Greece as a refugee, but they wouldn’t let him leave. He had two wives and at the border they only allowed him to cross with the asylum of one of his two families, which is why he stayed in Türkiye. Rosa, Angie and Sonia with some of the families that ABCA welcomed to Athens from Syria, these victims of the war, the association finds the apartment where they will live and prepares it, to the point that they are the ones who install the most basic household appliances, such as the refrigerator or a washing machine. Then, for about a year, they pay the rent for the house, while the association in the country where they are staying ensures that the family can get by. Thus, refugees are supported until they can function freely and seek their livelihood in the country where they find themselves. Families are chosen based on vulnerability indices: sick people, mothers with children and elderly people… One of the most important aspects when it comes to stopping aid is the schooling of children. The association helps them until their situation is normalized. Donations start at 15 euros. Schooling is the basis of the project in Cameroon. They collaborate with “Doble Corazón”, which is trying to build an orphanage. From Andalusia, what is guaranteed is funding to help with the education of children. There is also a social component in Spain with shelters for Sahrawi children in Lérida. These are minors who suffer from illnesses that cannot be treated in the Sahara. These are the cases of Aïcha, eight years old, and Adda, seven years old, both suffering from heart disease, or Lehbib, thirteen years old, awaiting urological surgery. They are part of the group to whom this Andalusian association allows to stay to seek a future outside of war.

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