Contact Us

Gazan mother of 7 makes living by selling bread crumbs

Fairuz, a 45-year-old Palestinian woman and her family's sole breadwinner, has learned to eke out a living in the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip by selling bread crumbs to local bird breeders.

  • 4
  • 8
Gazan mother of 7 makes living by selling bread crumbs

In order to meet her family's most basic needs, Fairuz collects bread crumbs from her neighbors, schools and refugee camps.

  • 5
  • 8
Gazan mother of 7 makes living by selling bread crumbs

She then sells the crumbs at a market in the nearby city of Khan Yunis, where she manages to make about $5 a day.

  • 6
  • 8
Gazan mother of 7 makes living by selling bread crumbs

This amount is, however, is insufficient to feed her children or pay for her husband's medical treatment.

  • 7
  • 8
Gazan mother of 7 makes living by selling bread crumbs

"Sometimes I can't even buy enough water and have to ask my neighbors for help," Fairuz told Anadolu Agency, lamenting that water provided by the local authorities was generally too salty to drink.

Struggling with poverty, sickness and other travails, Fairuz hopes to eventually find more suitable employment so as to better provide for herself and her family.

  • 8
  • 8
Gazan mother of 7 makes living by selling bread crumbs

According to UN data, roughly 80 percent of the Palestinians in the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip require humanitarian assistance.

For the last 12 years, the Gaza Strip has continued to groan under a crippling Israeli blockade that has gutted the coastal enclave's economy and deprived its two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.