Paul Calvert spoke with Poive Mumba

Poive: Mainly they try to go to the families and if they have money they try to rent a flat or they are in a tent. I don't see any people living in the street, so everyone is somewhere, but still there are people in the tents.

Paul: Are there the basic necessities in Gaza like electricity, food, water and petrol? Is that easily available or are there problems there as well?

Poive: Every day there are problems with those things. They say that every other day at least they are without electricity for eight hours. Fuel is another problem, many things have been smuggled in from Egypt through tunnels, so when the tunnels were bombed it means that supplies aren't getting through that way either.

Paul: Now when you work with the children and are giving them therapy, what sort of things do you do to help them through the conflict and the difficulties that they have faced?

Poive: We try to do psycho social activities so that they can play and draw and tell their stories and feel a little bit of relief and support from others and from the adults. In our programme in those 12 schools where Church Aid is working they have put 16 people who will work with the teachers so that they get more support to work with the children and listen to their stories.

Paul: Do the children respond to the therapy that you give them?

Poive: Yes they like it and I have been meeting them all the time. When I go there and see those drawings, they are getting a little bit lighter, more beautiful colours and their stories are looking more to the future.

Paul: What sort of personal stories do they have that you have heard?

Poive: Oh all kinds of stories; we have children who have lost everything, all the family members and the house; we have all kinds of stories.

Paul: Why do you do what you do?

Poive: I have seen that this is the help that the people need and it's the help that we can very easily forget, because we think that we need the houses, shelter, food and water and treatment, then we don't need anything else; but that is not true, people need more help with mental health to continue the life and they need support on how to cope.

Paul: What's your prayer for the people in Gaza, for the difficulties that they faced?

Poive: I think we need to pray that they have some kind of hope that the situation will finish some day. That the Gaza wall will be opened and they will have the freedom and dignity.