In a Gaza City factory, flour bags that once carried aid are being cut apart and sewn back together, this time as tote bags.
The work is part of a cash-for-work program run by the UN World Food Programme since April, giving displaced people in Gaza temporary jobs repurposing aid materials such as flour sacks and wood pallets. Participants work for three months and are paid 1,000 shekels a month, about $462 Canadian.
For many, the pay is limited but still meaningful. The money covers about a week of groceries and living essentials for some families.
“I really wanted to have a job; I really wanted to have money to spend because my husband is sick,” 38-year-old Warda Aliwa told CBC freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife.
Aliwa said the work also gives used aid supplies another purpose.
“These bags of flour come to us as support from outside…. After they are emptied, why should we throw them away?” she said. “We make them into a bag and we put food in them.”
In another part of the factory, women work in pairs at sewing machines, attaching handles to the finished bags.
Others in the program are working with wood pallets that once carried aid. They take them apart with crowbars, sort the broken pieces, sand down the usable wood, then cut and assemble it into small tables and shelving units for people in need.
Faten Abu Sharkh, the project’s co-ordinator, said about 113 women and 20 men are involved in the program, which will be renewed annually. The products they make are distributed to people and schools for free.
She said the program has had a positive effect on participants.
“They worked on this project in order to change their mentality and give them financial, social and mental support,” she said. “They had depression and they were given medication but thank God, the work changed their mentality.”
The jobs come as Gaza’s economy remains badly damaged by the war, despite a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas that has been in place since October 2025.
About 78 percent of Palestinians in Gaza were unemployed last year, according to United Nations Trade and Development. For the working-age population, that figure rose to more than 90 percent.
Getting basic goods has also become harder. The UN WFP said in its August report that three-quarters of households reported difficulty accessing markets, largely because of cash shortages and high costs, even after more commercial and aid trucks arrived over the summer.
For 54-year-old Nisreen Abbas, the wages help support a large household. She cares for her 12 grandchildren and her 87-year-old husband, who uses a wheelchair.
“Thank God, I can stand on my own two feet,” Abbas said. “I bring food for my grandchildren; I bring medicine for my husband.”
Khaled al-Kurd, 50, said the job has given him some stability after losing his wife, his daughter, his home and his sewing business in the war.
“It was a total collapse for me,” he said. “Total destruction.”
He said the work has helped him regain some routine.
“There is a small amount of resources, but it helps us in life.”
The jobs are temporary, and once participants finish their three months with the WFP, they will need to find other work.
“I would like for this to be renewed, for us to keep working and for the income to keep coming to us,” Aliwa said. “We are doing something beneficial.”
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