Filipino women and their Palestinian spouses find hope in Metro Manila’s ‘Little Gaza’

On Good Friday in Quezon City, hundreds could be seen flocking to the ‘Little Gaza’ neighbourhood to savour a range of dishes prepared by a group of Filipinos.

The Filipinos are married to Palestinian men and the money they earned from selling the dishes at the Little Gaza Kitchen event was their first income for a long time.

A collective called the Moro-Palestinian Cooperation Team organised the one-day event at Don Antonio Village, where the Filipinos and their Palestinian spouses are staying in a four-storey building affectionately known as “Little Gaza”.

In total, 69 men, women and children in 16 families live in “Little Gaza”. All the adults are unemployed and the children are not in school.

To help the families run their food booths at Little Gaza Kitchen, Nors Maguindanao and his fellow co-founders of the collective invited sponsors and collected donations to buy equipment and ingredients. One such booth called A Taste of Gaza served Palestinian dishes such as maqlouba, a stewed rice dish cooked in a pot, and qatayef, a pancake with nuts.

Project Urduha, a non-profit organisation that runs a mentoring programme for women, set up social media pages to promote the families’ food businesses and take online orders.

“The ladies were already selling food by word of mouth. Our goal is to get them a restaurant they can register with [food delivery service] GrabFood,” said Project Urduha coordinator Cecelia, who declined to give her last name.

One of the Little Gaza Kitchen attendees, Jecs Bejar, said the booths attracted long queues and most of their dishes were sold out. Bejar, who bought chicken biryani and beef kebab, said he was eager to do his part in alleviating the plight of the families.

“It was a relief to see women and