For some Gaza kids, a donkey cart is the only way to class

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip(Reuters) – The crowded, potholed and often polluted streets of Gaza are tough – especially for children trying to get to school.

For those who live too far away or who are too young to make the trip on foot, and too poor to afford a bus, Loay Abu Sahloul has a reliable – if slow – alternative: his donkey cart.

Each morning, the 33-year-old Palestinian whistles three times to summon his passengers, most of them preschoolers, from their homes in Khan Younis refugee camp. Sometimes as many as 15 clamber aboard.

The earnings are meagre. But Abu Sahloul, who says being a donkey driver is the only employment available to him due to a neurological condition, sees the work as a social service.

“These families are in difficult financial conditions. The whole situation in Gaza is poor,” Abu Sahloul said. He charges five shekels ($1.3) per month for each child.

School buses, by contrast, cost at least 40 shekels a month.

The donkey cart can be hazardous, however. Children are exposed to the elements and have at times tumbled off.

“I can’t afford to send my son on a bus. My heart breaks each time I see him and the other children on the cart,” said Intissar Al-Araj, one of the parents who use Abu Sahloul’s service.

“Once he fell off the cart and injured his leg. I pray to God that my kids will be able to take a bus,” she said.

(Reporting by Nidal Almughrabi; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)