A Toilet in Gaza

A very essential thing

I always brace myself when Mahmoud says, "There's something I have to tell you brother," but this I semi-expected. The neighbors who had been letting the Shaats use their toilet have grown tired of the intrusion and have started locking their door at night. Mahmoud said "this creates problems" (duh) and he felt he had no choice but to ask if I could finance the building of a toilet.
Just imagine if you had to knock on the door of neighbors to go to the bathroom, and if you couldn’t access that bathroom, and you are a woman, how embarrassing it would be to have to to squat outside (or inside, using a bowl you need for cooking as a chamber pot). Yes, Mahmoud had given the neighbors bags of flour, but it appears they would rather have their privacy. (This was one of the casualties of having to evacuate south. They had a bathroom in the house they had rented.)
I posted this on FB, and almost immediately my friends Heather and Amy stepped up, and together they contributed the $500 needed by Mahmoud. I sent him $300 on top of that, because they are almost done with that large package of food they were able to get with humanitarian aid started trickling in.
Less than a day later, from Mahmoud, the attached video and: “This is what I prepared. I dug a well, put an iron barrel in it, connected it with a plastic fence, and bought the tarpaulin to cover the sides. All that remains is tiling the floor and covering the upper side.” I think he gathers the waste in large plastic garbage bags that are under the commode, and when they are full, he replaces them. With no waste collection or city services I don’t know what the population is doing besides putting garbage in makeshift dumps. But Israel cut off electricity to sewage treatment plants. It’s a miracle there hasn’t been a cholera epidemic.
Still very impressed by his industriousness and creativity. He’s managed to attach it to the tent on one side and a fence on the other, so the family has privacy.
I was so grateful for my generous friends. But the $300 was a tough lift, on top of thousands I’ve spent to keep this family alive since March. The drama of late paying clients continues and is causing me great stress. So any help is welcome. @markolmsted on PayPal or @MarkOlmsted-4 on Veno. Or buy me a cup of coffee (or several) via Kofi.
I’m told over and over by contributors that seeing their money alter individual lives is much more satisfying than money sent to organizations, although I certainly understand that you would choose to seek to help the many instead of the few via an organization. I like to flatter myself that the kind of person that reads my substack is the kind of person who is generous with their charitable dollar, so I can imagine how it is already committed for many of you.
MCO 2025