Stories from Palestine

Aida refugee camp and Noor WEG

April 25, 2021 Rua Season 2 Episode 15
Stories from Palestine
Aida refugee camp and Noor WEG
Show Notes Transcript

In the Palestinian refugee camp 'Aida' in Bethlehem a group of women with children with a disability came together to support each other. It started as simple as collecting money to be able to buy cheaper nappies in bulk so they would save money. The mother's group grew out into the Noor (which means light in Arabic) Women Empowerment Group (WEG).

In this episode you can learn more about the Palestinian refugee camps in general and Aida camp in Bethlehem in particular. I speak with Rua who runs the Noor Rehabilitation Center, a project by the Noor Women Empowerment Group. They support people with disabilities in different ways, with physical therapy, psychological support and by offering classes for children with learning problems and autism.

As the Center is completely dependent on charity, donations are highly appreciated. They also offer (online) cooking classes that you can sign up for and donate towards!

For the Society for Disabled go to: https://noorsocietyfordisabled.wordpress.com

For Noor Women Empowerment Group and cooking classes: https://noorweg.wordpress.com

Connect to Stories from Palestine on social media, follow the YouTube channel and sign up for the weekly e-mail. You can find all the links in the linktree:
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Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem

Aida camp is 1 of 3 refugee camps in Bethlehem and 1 of 19 official refugee camps in the Westbank. There are another 4 unofficial camps that are not served by the UN. There are also 8 refugee camps in Gaza, 12 in Lebanon, 9 in Syria, 10 in Jordan and another 6 unofficial camps. That makes a total of 58 official plus 10 unofficial camps. 68 refugee camps.

The number of Palestinians registered with the UN as refugees is about 6 million. 1.5 million of them live in refugee camps run by UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Work Agency, that was established especially for the purpose of human support and relief for the Palestinians that were displaced in 1948 by the Zionist militias. 

In 1948 more than 500 Palestinian villages and cities were attacked by Zionist forces when they tried to depopulate the territory that would become the State of Israel. The Palestinian towns were attacked from three sides, leaving one side open towards the closest boarder to where the Palestinians fled. 

They all hoped they would be back to their homes after the violence would end. But they were never allowed to return. And so today the 3rd or even 4th generation of refugees lives in camps under harsh conditions.

Aida refugee camp is about 0.07 km2. When the camp was set up there were 94 tents for the 1125 refugees. That number has grown to about 6000 inhabitants. The majority of them, about 60% is under the age of 15. There is one school for boys and one for girls, run by the UN. The unemployment rate is 70%

Israeli military base, checkpoint and wall

Aida Camp is close to an Israeli military base by the Rachel's tomb shrine and the Bethlehem checkpoint. The Wall that Israel built was built right next to the camp. The area where the children used to play between the olive trees is now on the Jerusalem side of the Wall. This Wall is definitely not built on the green line, the armistice line, cause if it was then it would be 200 meters from my home in Beit Safafa and we would be living on the Bethlehem side of it. So the Wall was built as close as possible on the camp, leaving the Palestinians behind it and taking the agricultural lands to the State of Israel.

That means there is hardly an space for children to play. The streets of the refugee camp are narrow. 

Protests against this wall were met with a lot of violence from the Israeli soldiers and tear gas is shot very regularly at the people in the camp. It is said that Aida camp is the most exposed to tear gas in the world. As a result of the use of very aggressive tear gas, many Palestinians suffered injuries, were heavily affected by the lack of oxygen or died. The number of women delivering babies with health issues is high in Aida Camp. Especially the number of children with cerebral palsy, that is permanent movement disorders that are caused by abnormal development or damage of parts of the brain. These brain parts control the movement, balance and posture. Only last year there were seven babies born and registered with cerebral palsy. 

Living with a disability in the camp

Having a handicap in the camp is hard, because first of all it is common in the society to hide children with disabilities. Plus there are no facilities and no adapted streets to move with a wheelchair or to be the least independent. 

In 2010 a number of women with children with disabilities started together to look into how to support each other. It started as simple as collecting money to be able to buy bulk nappies from a factory that produced B-quality nappies for babies so they could save money. This developed into the mother's club and into Noor Women Empowerment Group. To support the work they wanted to do for their families and disabled children they came up with a number of activities to be self sustainable. They organized cooking classes, home stays for foreigners, they made a recipe booklet with Palestinian recipes and they teach how to make embroidery. 

One of the earliest founders is Islam the mother of six children, the oldest was born with cerebral palsy. I talk to her daughter Rua who is running the Noor Rehabilitation Center. 

Kristel: I just arrived to Noor Rehabilitation Center. It's part of Noor Empowerment Group here in the refugee camp Aida. And I'm going to speak to Rua about the center and the work of the center, but I'm just peeking a little bit around here. Just after the reception, there is a room that is used for spending time with the children.

There are some books and some toys for the kids. There is a sign says speech therapy. This is the place where speech therapy is done. And then we continue and then there is another room. I'm going to follow Rua because she's the one who knows her way. There's basically only three small rooms that they are trying to use as well as they can.

There is one room that is used for music therapy, and there's also a lot of storage here because they don't have enough space. And then there is place where they can have a treatment, physiotherapy and other therapies. And then there is a Miss, she's sitting with three children with autism and they are playing in the classroom.

[Conversation in Arabic with the children who are playing and learning about colors]

So there is so much good intention, but they really, really need a bigger space so that they can use it much more effectively. 

I'm here with Rua and she's made some time in her busy schedule to talk to us about the work that Noor is doing. But before we talk about that, can you introduce yourself a little bit?

Rua: Sure. My name is Rua, I'm 22 years old. I'm working here at Noor Society for people with disability, with rehabilitation work. You know, relationship and things like that to improve our work and to get our work well known to people. 

Kristel: Did you study something related or you just have the experience from working here?

Rua: Actually I got experience from my brother. I have a disabled brother. He has cerebral palsy and now he's a grown up. So, you know, I got the experience from him, but actually I studied architectural engineering, so it has nothing related to this work. 

Kristel:That's what I see a lot here. People, they study something and then there is no much work in that field. But also, this is very important what you are doing now, and I'm sure that it can give you another type of satisfaction. 

We are here in Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem, and I think it's also important for people to understand where we are. Can you just give us a little bit of information about why are Palestinians in a refugee camp and what is special about Aida refugee camp?

Rua: People since 1948, since the catastrophe, they escaped from the villages because of the war and they were worried about their families and their children. So they came here to this place. And by the way, this place called Aida for two reasons. The first one, because this land goes to a Christian woman called Aida and the second reason is Aida means returning back. So that was our big aim of returning back to our villages and our lives before the catastrophe. 

Kristel: Do you know where your family is originally from? 

Rua: Yes. We came from a village called Beit Nattif, it's between Hebron and Jerusalem.

Yeah, even it's still there, it's not a settlement yet, but we are not allowed to go there or even to visit it, to have a look at it, nothing . 

Kristel: And can you sketch a little bit how the life is inside the camp? What does it look like here and how is it to live in a refugee camp? Because I think a lot of people abroad when they hear refugee camp, they think you're living in tents, but since you are here since 1948, and we're talking probably third, fourth generation, I don't think you're in tents. 

Rua: Well, that's what people think usually, but no, we're not living in tents, but after the catastrophe in five years, we were trying to work hard, trying to get some money because we realize in a point that we won't get back to our villages and our homes in a week or in a month, as they say it for us, it was a big lie.

And people died in small tents in winter time, even in summer time. So, we had an idea and we start thinking about it and working for building a room and trying to survive. Also UNRWA [United Nations Relief and Work Agency] started this work with us, they built one room for each family, but we are talking about Arab families. So one family means over than twelve persons in the same room. And the room is around 16 square meters. So could you imagine ? 

Yeah, but the life in the camp here, I love the solidarity here, but it's too crowded. There is no privacy and the streets, the infrastructure that you are having here is the worst in the world. And there is no enough electricity, no enough water, because we can't control our water, everything coming from the settlements. And the life here also we're living in area C, which means we are not controlling our lives. We are living also close to the wall and the 300 checkpoint. So because of that, sometimes a lot of Jewish soldiers coming here and throwing gas, knocking your door, arrest your child. So it's not safe at all. And that's the life in Aida camp. 

Kristel: It is a big challenge to stay here. I was just driving up my way through the camp and I realized that there are only a few roads where you can actually get with your car and then you have all those little narrow alleyways. And a lot of water tanks on the roofs of the houses because people have to store water for the times that the water through the pipes is closed and you don't get any water. So the situation is definitely difficult, but I'm always so surprised by the resilience of Palestinian people and projects like the one where we are here now. 

Before we talk about this project, we are now in the month of Ramadan. This is the ninth month of the Hijri calendar. This is what we learned last week in the podcast. Can you explain for yourself, what does this month mean to you and how the Ramadan is experienced here in the camp? 

Rua: Ramadan is that much love for me because it's giving you patience, giving you love, solidarity and asking you about your neighbors.

So at least you stay in your home and you make sure that your neighbors not going to sleep hungry. And that is the most important thing. You pray, go to the mosque, you help each other. That's right. And that's what we do in Ramadan. But the most important thing is your feeling of giving things to people.

Because when you have money or when you have something, you will start keeping this money or this thing that you have for you. So the aim of giving these things that you have for people is giving you that much of value. So it's that much of important feeling and support and patience, because in your daily life, you just eat, but some people don't, and that's how we get the idea for preparing food boxes or cooked food.

So it's giving you ideas for helping others. Maybe some people are ashamed of saying, yes, I need money or I need food or I need something. All of us trying to help each other, even if your friend, for instance, says I need nothing, but just give it, you know, this month, just for these things, for these moments, for the solidarity.

And that's what we do. 

Kristel: Do you feel that during this last year of COVID that the situation of families in the camp deteriorated a lot? Is there a big difference between today and a year ago? 

Rua: It's difficult. Before we're working with people, like tourists around and we'll have income, income for the society here, for the community and everybody. But because of COVID, we start giving people patience of; yes, we'll support you. We'll give you, we will, we will, but always just saying it and have no idea of proving it to people. 

Why? Because there's nothing to do. There's nothing in your hand. And they're asking for money for instance or they're asking for medicine and you reach to a point, you can't even help yourself. So what about helping people? And you don't need to give promises that's not going to happen. So it's that hard and you start to saying for people, okay we'll see, we will see like, next month, maybe next month. And we reach here to 2021, the second year.

Inshallah it will go, because people really had a lot of hard times, especially the ones who work daily. Like you work daily and you get paid daily. So at the end of the month, you're not going to get a good budget, like the normal people, no, on the end of the month, you need to calculate the money that you reached daily or these days.

And having no work means no money, no support for your family. There's nothing to do. 

Kristel: Let's talk a little bit about your work here in the organization, because this is a place where you are trying to support others and to give relief to families here in the camp.

What is Noor? I remember when I read it first time, maybe, I don't know, six, seven, eight years ago. And it said Noor and then W E G. And for us in Dutch, that reads as 'weg' and 'weg' in Dutch means road. So I thought it's the road of Noor until I realized that it means Women Empowerment Group. So what is Noor Women Empowerment Group? When did it start? What does it do? 

Rua: Noor means light, first of all. So as you say it is road and the road, it's kind of light, so in different languages you will get the same direction. Nice. Yes. So Noor Women's Empowerment Group. A group of women we can say 35 women from Aida camp, mothers of disabled children collect together and they try to do something for their children because they realize that , if you're not going to support your child, nobody going to support you.

Even, you know, in their same family, like if we talk about fathers, fathers, always good, but compared to mothers, no, mothers always the ones who feel about the family, about the children, what they need, what they have and that's it. So in the beginning, the idea started from two women, mothers of disabled children, were brave enough to talk to people to find something to help themselves.

So we start thinking about having cooking classes or something that all of us can do. Mothers who have disabled children, of course. And we realized that all of them married, but not all of them well-educated and we got the idea of doing Palestinian cooking classes for foreigners in Bethlehem and because Bethlehem always having people like pilgrims. And we started asking people about cooking classes and the idea, like come to our kitchen and try our cooking classes and start talking to people on the Facebook and everybody. Since that time, till 2015, we start our cooking classes and things start to be bigger and bigger.

In the beginning we had just five people. But after five years, we're having in one kitchen over 50 PAX. Now we have two places, these two places, one of them we can host 50 persons and the second one we can host from seventy to one hundred. So it's that huge.

At the same time we do ready food. For instance, if you have wedding or if you have something like a meeting and if someone has allergies or something, we're trying to create a special dish for him. And that's the idea of giving 'noor', the light for people lives not just for disabled children.

From that time till now we start the school here: Noor Society for people with Disability, because the money that we reached since 2010 till 2015, we were giving a percentage like 20% for the people who work with us and for the cleaning, for the materials and everything. And the rest of it, 80% goes to the school here. So we're saving the money for five years and we opened this place. And here this place it's for free. It's a charity helping disabled children in Aida camp, in Azza camp, and even people in Beit Jalla and Hebron coming here and asking for our services. And we're always trying to help people.

For instance, in physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, mental health program, osteopathy and music therapy and autism class, of course, because autism class, now we are having 14 children, which is a lot because in the same class we can't host of course 14. So always three, three, three, to control them and the same people that having the same diagnosis.

And that's what we are looking for because after six months always we do another test for them to take their development, because we want to see where we reached. So from the last month until now, what we did for these people. And usually autism class, we're talking about sensory people, it's not like us, their thoughts, their imagination, which is good. They're smart, they're so smart. And they are lovely. 

Kristel: I was just listening to a podcast from somebody who is autistic, but she's extremely smart. She's very emotional. She can feel other people. She just explained that she has just other sensory needs and that sometimes she doesn't fit in the general way of society. But if these children get special attention, they can very well function. 

Can you tell me a little bit about how people here in Palestine in general, and maybe in the camp in particular, how they look at people with disabilities? 

Rua: If you're talking about few years ago, we will see hard things for people with disability. It's kind of not respecting them or even looking at them in a way like, yes okay, you need my help. You need something. I mean, don't look at him because he's disabled or at his physical disability or at his mind. Deal with him the way that you deal with your sister or with your brother, because he's just a human. As he gives you a respect, he wants the same from you. So that's the idea of meeting each other here.

But in Palestine the situation, we can't say everywhere, of course, it's a percentage between villages, cities, if you are well-educated or not, because education always giving that development. We had some problems because people with disability always come here and say they don't respect me. Or they feel like I'm useless or they just need to carry me. And I need a ramp, or I need someone to pick me up from my home to the street. The ones who use the wheelchair. So it's that challenging thing that they have in their lives. 

And some people they just gave up, they stay at home and they said, I can't go there because for instance, my brother or people around me not helping me or not picking me up. So how come I go to the streets? Or even facing people. And they'd been shy from saying to people, yes I'm a disabled child. Why? Because they look at you, they look at your wheelchair, they trying to give you money or something. Helping him doesn't mean he needs money or he needs something he just needs your respect.

That's all, that's all what he needs. And that's what we're trying to say for people here. Because of that we have a mental health program with psychologist, always visiting people in the camp because we do home visits also. So a different kind of rehabilitation for the ones who can't come here till we encourage them to come, because by ignoring them and saying they don't want to come, we'll get different type of problems here. Like from this year to the next year, we'll have more people having the same problem. So no, we are trying to solve the problem from the beginning till we reach the next year, having a good result. 

Kristel: Do you have an example of a story where you saw a child really changing and maybe blossoming after starting to come here? Do you feel that there's a change in behavior or in attitudes of the children and or of the parents? 

Rua: Yes, of course. We have a lot of successful stories. One of them Adham. He is 24 years old. He has cerebral palsy. So his physical body not working well with his hands and with his legs, but his mind like his brain is working a hundred percent. So that was the point, we encouraged him to study. And now he's studying in open university. He's studying psychologist. Yes.

So we said for him, look Adham, you're smart enough. You can try it. You'll have people helping you like your teachers, people around you. And that's how we start. He got the idea from us and we were inspiring him always and pushing him. So after five years, because he started coming here, I think 2015, and we're giving him physiotherapy and occupational therapy sessions.

And while these sessions we were talking to him, even our psychologists were talking to him. And that was the idea of meeting someone and giving the light to his life. So after that, he said, yes, I will go to 'tawjihi'. Tawjihi it's the final exam, but at high school. So he got a good result.

And after that talked to people and he said, I want to go to university. And we said to him, yes, we'll encourage you. We will try even your fees, to cover them from us, from people. We'll see, we'll find a way at least just go. And now he's studying in his third year. So he's always coming here and trying to be a teacher at us.

He's saying you need to do these things and rules. So we just say that Adham, just four years ago, you were just, you know, now you're giving us directions.

Kristel: It's an amazing story. Somebody who came here to find help who will later on be the person who can actually offer help. That's a great story. 

Can you tell us a little bit about the Ramadan food bank? That's also an initiative by Noor right? 

Rua: We did this project, called Ramadan food bank, because we want to help people around us, our neighbors. And we got the same idea last year. So last year under the name of 'Be my neighbor'.

So 'Be my neighbor' is the same thing that we do today because we started the concept last year. And this year we're continuing with this because we had a kitchen downstairs, it's called Noor WEG, or Women Empowerment Group. And we were thinking about preparing cooked food. But when we asked people, we had always meeting with people and asking them about our work and what we do, what we can develop and all these things.

It's kind of feedback. So they said for us, we prefer to give us food boxes instead of cooked food, because while giving me this quantity are not going to be enough for my family while I have six children and others have ten and maybe some people have two, so it's not equal. And because of that, we started the idea of buying food boxes.

We start saying for people this is a project, we spread it around with our friends and we said, we want to do for this Ramadan for instance 300 food boxes. So these food boxes contain the basic things for the house. So includes beans, includes sugar, you know the basic things for any house. And also with milk because we don't want to forget the babies. Especially in these times because of Corona time. So people always having that special needs. 

They always been asking for food boxes for helping. Maybe they'd be shy from getting food from others, or even asking you for money.

But we know that they need it, because their neighbors talking about them. They said for instance, they go to the street, they try to ask people about things how much is it? But they don't buy. So it's that hard for families. And after COVID-19, it's really hard life. And because of that, we start collecting money we just ask them to donate if they can. And we give them the link of our project at Palestinian food bank, or let's say Ramadan food bank. 

So the idea now is to give food during Ramadan. So from the beginning of Ramadan until the end of it. But if we reach more people and more money we will continue giving people food boxes, even after Ramadan.

That's why we just call it food bank, because we want to give people maybe during the week, maybe during the year, and we just gave them food boxes yesterday, by the way, and this one of them, this box. 

Kristel: Let me check what's in the box! There's one box here, a cardboard box. Can I open it? Oh yeah, let's see. Oh, there is Halawa and lentils, sugar, oil. This is coffee,?

Rua: Tea.

Kristel: Tea! This is milk, maybe for the baby? Spaghetti, freekeh, which is very healthy. Tomato sauce. Rice. Lots of basics that are really important for people. A box like this would cost maybe what? Like at least 50/ 60 shekels? 

Rua: This one 150. Yes. But before the last Ramadan we were giving people food boxes contains a lot of things more than this one. You know we're having budget now because of small donations. But yesterday, we already gave people 60 food boxes, so 60 in 150 for each one. So it's that amount of money for us. 

Always we're trying to reach more people. And even people started asking and saying, you give my neighbor, but you didn't give me, so why? I mean, we have a list of people and you need to wait for your turn. 

Kristel: How do you do that? How many people are there in Aida camp and how do you select who is the poorest ones?

Rua: Well, we have here 6,000 and half and people still increasing more and more. Our priority here as Noor: people with disability and their parents and their families. So once we finish people with disability, we'll go to the poorest one.

How, because people know each other, we just know them. And we have a group of mothers, like 35 mothers. So these mothers, all of them go to the camp, visit people inside their houses. While drinking coffee they just ask them about their situations and you'll find everything. And that's our way of judging people.

We don't want asking you about your situation because this way, no one going to say I'm poor, or I need money or I need something, but we're trying to reach them in a friendly way, like I'm your neighbor I want to sit with you. I want to see your situation. We are friends and this way, and that's how we reach people.

We have a database, so this database contains both people with special needs, like people with disability and their families. And the second one is the needy people in Aida camp, the poor one. And always checking them, if they need something or if they go to another development, like their children, if they want to go to university, how we can cover their fees with people like friends of us wanting to give donations. And that's how we work. 

Kristel: What is your dream for Noor? For the Rehabilitation Center or for the Women Empowerment Group? Do you have a vision? 

Rua: In 2010, we started with a vision of building a school for disabled children. Now we're having that place. We're having the services, but we're not having that building. 

This place here is around 70 square meters and we're already having a sensory room, but we don't know where to put it. And we're having materials and machines very important for people and for disabled children, especially, but we don't know where to put it. And we were looking for a place and people for helping us in a place, or even maybe as a donation or even as something that we can rent or we can buy for years maybe, but we find nothing always when we ask people about this building, it's that kind of good building.

And for me, because of my study, so I can judge if it's good enough for people with disabilities or not. And that's what I'm doing right now. Even interior design, if it's helpful for a disabled child or a disabled adult or not. 

Kristel: So basically once you had building and or funding for a building, you would start a project where basically all the children in the camp who are suffering with the disabilities, from not having access to normal school would have the opportunity to be in a school. Should that go through the ministry of education? Is that something that you are already connecting to, or is that a step further? 

Rua: From the beginning, we talked to the Ministry and people working there, but they said you're a charity, so you need to work by your own. And that was the hardest part for us because once you were working with cooking classes and suddenly you start with the Rehabilitation School and you have no idea about the thing that is going to work with donations and people work. Because you can't ask people to pay. They can't pay. So we were just looking for donations and from a project, to another. We had projects at Global Giving website explaining everything, but it's still not enough for us. We're looking for a good fundraising that really helps us like projects helping. Noor as a big Association, helping people in Aida camp.

Now we have 300 people with disabilities and we're trying to help all of them, but not in the services. In the services we can cover forty five. Forty five people always coming here and it's that crowded place. We're trying always to organize it to say for people, yes, your schedule is here. And every six months we change our schedule with different people. It goes through the development that we reach. But it's still that hard. Why? Because people need help. And we know that. We go home visits for rehabilitation work, but still people need to be covered and their services. And no one asking about disabled. Let's say yes, maybe they ask about poor people or even about food as people are doing in Aida camp, but they're not asking about disabled and what they need.

Maybe they need a surgery. Maybe they need a wheelchair, like assistant devices. Maybe they need to get education and don't want to allow them to go. So we just go with them and we help them in these steps to reach the point that they want to do something in their lives. But at the end of everything we need a building. And we need a very good fund raising. 

We are looking for help from Banksy , because it's that much important for us.

Kristel: Just so that people know who is Banksy, he's the famous graffiti artist that painted several of his graffiti here on the wall. And then he also started the Banksy hotel, which is just close to the big checkpoint in Bethlehem and also not far from here. 

So you're saying that if Banksy would hear about this project and if somebody had the chance to reach out to Mr. Banksy, whoever he is, because nobody knows who this artist really is, that you'd like to sit with him and talk with him, right? 

Rua: Yes. Sure. It's a pleasure for all of us, everybody looking forward to meet him.

So what about meeting him for human services? It's that huge and it's that important. Everybody looking forward to see him, but we want to see him because of these services because of people with disability and children with disability. So it's that need and it's that human thing. 

Kristel: So Mr. Banksy, and anybody with contact to him, please let him hear this podcast episode and somehow reach out to the Noor program so that you can hear how important it is to start some support for this place.

And if anybody is listening to the podcast and they are inspired to do a donation to support you in your work with disabilities, but also maybe for the food bank project, is there a way to make donations from abroad? 

Rua: Yes, we have a project at Global Giving, it's a website. And what you need to do is to go to our website, Noor Society for people with Disability. So you just open it and you will see a label for support. You go there and you'll have everything like all projects at Global Giving and projects for the Center here. And you can help for Ramadan or even for programs for the people. Like autism class, a physiotherapy class and for different classes. 

Kristel: That's great, I will post the link in the show notes of the podcast. So people can just go there, click on the link and see what you're doing, and then make a donation that would be super, super appreciated. My final question, do you have a special Ramadan message to the world?

Rua: Our message always on Ramadan is solidarity, because Ramadan being built for solidarity and for humanity. In this world we realize that everybody started thinking about money about increasing more and more. But Ramadan is the month of, as we say it 'Shahr el Khair' [month of blessing].

So inshallah, it will be this month of good things, good memories and good health specially for poor people, for needy people, for children, for everybody. We're trying to help as much as we can in Noor Society for people with Disability. And we want people also to do this thing. Maybe we can't reach everybody, but everybody can help everybody.

There's something that we always say, maybe you can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone. And that's it. That's the point of Ramadan. 

Kristel: Thank you so much for taking this time to explain us a little bit about the work. I know you're very busy and there's lots of people and children waiting for you. I wish you a blessed Ramadan. 

Rua: Thank you. Nice meeting you.