Bread Ovens & Hot Meals for families in Gaza
September 2025

A few months ago, through our friends at the Gaza Sunbirds, we were introduced to the Ajyal Association for Creativity and Development.

A hand-made bread oven being built in Gaza.
— — — — — — —

Founded in Gaza City in 2003, Ajyal is a youth-led organisation dedicated to improving the lives of children and young people. We’ve been hugely impressed by their creativity and resilience and were delighted when they invited us to partner with them on a microbakery programme.

She Is Capable

The programme called 'She is Capable' supported 20 women in displacement camps around Gaza City — each of them the sole breadwinner for their families.

Ajyal provided them with portable clay bread ovens (made locally), baking utensils and essential supplies — flour, firewood and more — to set up their own microbakeries. Alongside the equipment, the women received training in bread, pastry and cake baking, as well as business management, marketing and food hygiene.

The aim was not only to improve food security and provide income, but also to tell a story of resilience, creativity and women’s economic empowerment in the face of unimaginable hardship.

We’ve been hugely impressed by their creativity and resilience and were delighted when they invited us to partner with them on a microbakery programme.

Ajyal completed the She Is Capable programme at the end of August. When we asked if they wanted to run it again, their answer was heartbreaking but clear: with Israeli attacks intensifying on Gaza City, and with families already displaced multiple times likely to be forced to move again, they felt they needed to focus instead on their Hot Meals for Children programme.

Hot Meals for Children

With your support, we immediately sent the funds needed to provide hot vegetarian meals for 5,500 people across five displacement camps in and around Gaza City, as well as for 600 children in a local orphanage.

Hot food ready for distribution in Gaza.
— — — — — — —

The scale of shortages is staggering. Before the war, a meal would have cost less than £1. Today, it costs £6.

Ajyal is determined to keep the Hot Meals programme running for as long as possible, until the Israeli assault makes it impossible to continue.

We have already funded a second wave of meals, and we are committed to supporting Ajyal’s efforts for as long as they can provide this lifeline to the one million people sheltering in Gaza City, who face starvation and further displacement.

Support Gaza Today
It now costs £6 to provide one hot vegetarian meal for a family in Gaza — meals that were less than £1 before the war.

Every donation helps Ajyal continue their Hot Meals for Children programme, providing food and dignity to families who have lost everything.

Donate now to provide a meal in Gaza »