Paul Calvert talks to dedicated humanitarian, Stuart Gonliun, about his aid work helping victims of terror in Sderot.

Paul: So Sderot has really suffered economically?

Stuart: It has. The city has tried to change its image. When you go to the city you see all the beautiful parks and the flowers but it doesn't change the fact that for the last 17 years Sderot has been hit by one kassam after another, if not today then tomorrow, if not tomorrow a week from now.

Paul: When you meet these people, do you hear that they have suffered from rocket attacks? Do they tell you their stories?

Stuart: Absolutely. One of the people that we help lost their first child, five years old, just graduated from kindergarten. His mum was taking him to graduation with a bagful of candy. It was before we had the alarm. The kassam killed the child and the mother lost her legs. At the funeral her husband was there grieving and on the news they were celebrating in Gaza what they did. I could tell you a lot of other stories about people that we have met.

Paul: So, other than giving out food, what other projects do you have as well?

Stuart: We give out clothing; during the school year we help with schoolbooks and school supplies, backpacks. I'm a general contractor from America, that's what I used to do. A lot of people have things in their house that they can't afford to fix, whether it's the walls that have cracks or an electrical problem with the light fixture going out and then we go and do that for them as well. The last three summers we've picked a school and have gone in there and totally repainted it - they buy the materials but we supply all the labour. So the kids come to school and it looks totally different to what they left.

Paul: Do people get hot meals as well, from you?

Stuart: They don't, although from one of the schools we get the lunch meals that the kids don't eat and we give those out at night, anything between 25 and 40 hot meals a night. That's not from us, we're given it and we pass it on.

Paul: This is one way that you are blessing the community even through a difficult time, a hard time, through rocket fire; you're still able to bless the community.

Stuart: Absolutely. As I said earlier, this is not my ministry; this belongs to Yah. Why the name Hope for Sderot? Because there is only one hope for Sderot and it's not the IDF, although God bless them, but to come back to God, to come back to Abba, to come back to the one who sustains us. This is the only hope we have. When we make this a religious war, as our enemies have, things may change.

Paul: If a siren sounds today what would we do?

Stuart: You would run with me to my bomb shelter here which is actually my bedroom so at night I don't really worry about it anymore. Since they built this I don't think in 4 years I've spent more than 20 hours watching TV out here. My back is turned to Gaza in here; it's like 'no thank you'.

Paul: All apartments have bomb shelters; do the bus stops have bomb shelters?

Stuart: Just about every house where they could build one has a bomb shelter. Every bus stop is a bomb shelter as well, yes. Every school has a bomb shelter. Some of the schools you might have seen last time you were here, they've had to retro fit them with ¾ inch plate steel, over the top of the school to keep them safe. The school where I do a lot of work, the whole school is a bomb shelter.