A Dubai-based Singaporean businesswoman is doing her bit to help those displaced by the war in Gaza. Jean Winter, founder and CEO of inclusive talent management agency Touch Dubai, travelled to Egypt earlier this month to help some displaced Gazans.
She has been supporting them with rent and food, mentoring some women with their business ideas, and creating online jobs for impoverished Gazans in Egypt. Her Dubai-based Egyptian friend Fatima hosted her in the country and has been helping her reach out to local communities.
She met several displaced families struggling to find basic necessities during her stay. “I met one family of six who did not even have money to buy detergent to wash off the sand in their completely empty accommodation,” she said, speaking to Khaleej Times. She helped this family furnish their empty accommodation with some basic necessities and a stove in the kitchen. “I also ensured they had a month’s worth of food before I left,” she said.
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Jean, who also works as a CSR consultant and philanthropist, has employed three individuals displaced from Gaza to help her with the ongoing relief efforts.
“Instead of just giving them handouts to help with rent for their family 12, I employed three siblings, Nour, Hashem and Ali, to work for my company from Egypt,” she said. “I asked them to be my eyes and ears on the ground, to follow up on the families I helped on this trip, to meet more displaced Gazan families that need help, and to create a database to find other emergency cases. It is important to create a sustainable form of support by creating a system of empowerment, not dependency.”
Forming partnerships
Jean has been working hard to create sustainable partnerships. Through her agency, she has partnered with ETA, the only clean water supply company in North Gaza and the main supplier in South Gaza, to find a way to supply water for the people in Gaza directly from the source.
“Many different donors are asked for varying amounts of donations for vital necessities like water,” she said. “I was initially asked to sponsor approximately Dh3600 for every 10,000 litres into Gaza. By sheer luck, a friend knew the owner of ETA, Abdul Salam Yaseen, and I decided to ask to meet him. In that meeting, I learned that 10,000 litres of clean water should only cost approximately Dh1,800 instead of the Dh3,600 I quoted. That was when I realised that many commissions were made in between, which disappointed me.”
She said that international donors want to help and support but are going on blind trust without much knowledge of what is happening on the ground.
To cut out any middlemen and ensure transparency, Jean negotiated a partnership to ensure water availability at a flat rate of approximately Dh3.6 for every 20 litres. She said Touch Dubai will supply this to the camps and displaced communities not covered by NGOs. “The first batch of 30,000 litres of water was delivered to 4 camps and nearly 15,000 people,” she said. “Discussions for the next camps are underway now.”
Hard work
Jean said she spent several days unable to sleep due to the war. “I have many Palestinian friends who lost their families and relatives, and I also have a close friend from Gaza whose family was displaced in Egypt,” Jean said. “I am a mother, a wife, a sister, and a friend. I could not just stand by and watch silently. I knew that I had to do something to help them.”
She said the situation of Gazans in Egypt was dire. “They are all classified as illegal immigrants and cannot work without any proper documentation,” she said. “They are struggling to survive with no security for food or rent. They live day to day. We saw malnourished babies, single mothers with young children trying to survive, and multiple big families living in difficult conditions. My team created a criteria and priority list where we focus on families most desperately in need.”
She said that although many NGOs, independent grassroots organisations, corporations, and charities are already helping, the overwhelming needs of the huge number of displaced Gazans in Egypt are much more than the help and support available. “Egypt has been stretched very thin,” she said. “They have their own existing social problems, and then they struggle with the influx of refugees from several countries, including Sudan and Palestine.”
According to her, there seems to be a lack of communication and transparency between many organisations on the ground. “Many grassroots organisations are working in an ad hoc manner, which leads to sporadic availability of aid,” she said. Few organisations, if at all, work together cohesively even though they all come from a good place of love and kindness, wanting to do their best to help.”
Ready to help
Relief work is nothing new for Jean, who has been working with several communities in need across the world. From being heavily involved in supporting the refugees during the Syrian War of 2016 to presently building water filtration systems for schools and healthcare clinics in Cambodia, she has been partnering with grassroots organisations in several countries to make a difference. However, she has one word of advice to potential donors. “I want to urge donors to do in-depth background research and make sure that their donations reach the rightful people,” she said.