Watford charity Food for All unable to reach Gaza with aid

Food for All’s Victor Rogulev, from Garston, and Nick Balan, from Bushey, have experience entering dangerous situations to provide food for thousands, but said their attempt to go from Watford to Gaza “is not a great story of success”.

Initially they planned to drive their van to region, as they had done to the other areas, but doing so would mean a “massive endurance test drive”, as well as entering war zones.

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Victor Rogulev (left), Loka Saranga (right), Nick Balen (front) (Image: Food for All)

Instead, they flew to Cairo on January 5 and bought a cheap van there, alongside the extra equipment needed to set up one of their kitchens - which can provide around 20,000 daily meals.

Food for All had been told by other charities that entering Gaza would likely be impossible, but they still had hope of setting up at the border.

However, a week later, they were forced to turn around. The Watford and Czech teams which joined up in Cairo were unable to obtain the permits needed to enter the Sinai Peninsula, which leads to the the Gazan border, despite having acquired access to the equipment they needed.

Nick Balen at an Egyptian checkpoint. (Image: Food for All)

“We did everything we could possibly do,” explained Food for All director Peter O’Grady. “After a week of meetings and negotiations we were getting nowhere. Every possible route to Rafah was blocked.

“Truck drivers carrying essential medical aid and food were waiting for weeks in extreme weather conditions, and then to be refused entry.”

According to the UN, Rafah remains the only land crossing to get aid into Gaza. Just “a trickle” of aid was getting through from any source, the Watford charity said.

Nick Balen at an Egyptian checkpoint. (Image: Food for All)

Mr O’Grady added: “Who's morally right or wrong in Gaza is not our business, our business is to establish a kitchen with the capacity of 20,000 healthy meals daily for the struggling people, mostly women and children.

“We are ready to go back out at the drop of a hat, industrial cooking is our thing, we basically have a taskforce in Watford.”

Food for All is looking for more support and has “urgent appeals” for volunteers and funding to boost work in both Ukraine and Gaza.

The Food for All kitchen set up in Turkey last year. (Image: Food for All)