Zakat Foundation of America Chief Operating Officer Safaa Zarzour traveled to Palestine and Jordan in February to assess Zakat Foundation of America sponsored programs.
"If there are people on this earth who deserve help, they are there [Nablus]."
Nablus, Palestine
"I visited a house in Al-Balata camp where seven people were living. You walk into a room, and then through a hole in the wall – literally a hole – into the next room. In the back was a room with no windows, no other exit, and the children slept there. The mother slept with one of her children, who is disabled, in the other room. Their kitchen, well, we would not call it that, it was just awful. And that was the worst, but in many ways it was typical of how people are living."
"Any doubt I had as to whether the money was going where it needed to go was completely erased. I know the money is going where it belongs."
Jordan
"In Zaatari camp we found something interesting: There is plenty of food there! Well, some people may still be hungry, but for the most part everyone has enough to eat."
"But the problem is with the injured people. Children, adults, old people, if they were injured they went to surgery and got basic care, but there is no follow-up. They need physical therapy, they need rehabilitation or they will never be able to regain the muscle they are losing. They will still be permanently disabled because there is no follow-up."
"There are so many gaps; if Zakat Foundation of America can plug those basic holes that is enough for now."
"But really we want to do more long-term sustainability programs and that is where the Jordan Zakat Foundation of America office comes in. The potential there is tremendous. With the quality of people we have in the Jordan office, they could run programs that could truly become a model for development in the whole region."
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