Children who are sole survivors
Since October 2023, a phenomenon has become widespread in Gaza: children who are sole survivors, having lost their entire close family. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, more than 39,000 children have lost one or both parents.
These children need immediate shelter. They also need, for years to come, trauma, social, educational and medical follow-up. The two responses are inseparable: a roof without support does not repair what they have lived through.
Opened in less than a month
Preparation of the project began on 10 July 2025. The first children were taken in on 1 August, less than a month later — amid war, famine and closed crossing points. This speed of implementation was one of the year’s operational strengths.
The house, in a relatively safe area of al-Nuseirat, is home to 35 children.
What the house offers
The children receive secure housing, three meals a day, continuous medical follow-up and care from carers trained in psychological trauma. On top of this come educational support and activities — sport, trips to the beach, entertainment.
The team brings together carers, social workers, a project coordinator, a logistics manager, service staff, security guards, a full-time psychologist and a part-time lawyer.
The full care of one child costs around €1,000 a month.
“One thing is certain: I will never agree to close the orphanage.”
— Pr Raphaël Pitti
A commitment that does not end
The project has had two phases: run with HCDA from 10 July to 10 October 2025, it then moved to direct implementation by HuSoMe, with Abu Kweik as financial intermediary.
It is the organisation’s most demanding project over time. The medical points are a mass response to a failing health system; the Orphans’ House follows the opposite logic — individual support, for children no one else answers for, and for years.