He transformed his career as a teacher into the creation and leadership of one of southern Gaza’s largest grassroots displacement shelters, a camp that provides life-saving support to hundreds of orphaned and displaced families. In an environment marked by extreme volatility, continuous bombardment, and mass displacement, Kallakh has become known for prioritizing the most basic and urgent needs of war-affected families: safe shelter, food, clean water, medical care, and continuity of education for children who have lost their homes, parents, and regular schooling.
A Khan Younis resident, Kallakh initially worked as a teacher. His background in education shaped his understanding of children’s needs and informed him of the structure of the humanitarian programs he later developed. Before the escalation of the 2023–2025 war, Al-Baraka was a modest community initiative that operated small-scale charitable projects, including Al-Baraka Chicken, which distributed meals on Fridays; Al-Baraka Clothing, which provided free clothing for newly displaced families; and a dowry-reduction matchmaking initiative intended to alleviate financial burdens on low-income couples.
As the conflict intensified and displacement worsened, Kallakh responded to appeals from widows, orphans, and families who had lost their primary breadwinners. Many of these families lacked access to tents or basic shelter due to the severe overcrowding in existing displacement sites. In April 2024, volunteers established a camp in the Al-Mawasi area specifically for widows and their children. This effort laid the foundation for what would soon expand into the Al-Baraka Orphanage Camp, also referred to as “Orphans City,” one of the largest independent humanitarian shelters in the region.
The camp hosts between 400 and 600 displaced families, including widows, orphans, and households who lost their providers. With nearly 18,000 orphans estimated across Gaza, Kallakh positions the camp as an essential sanctuary for some of the war’s most vulnerable children.
Under his direction, Al-Baraka provides a wide range of essential services despite chronic shortages and constant insecurity. These include tents and shelter materials, daily food distributions, drinking water, and limited electricity for charging phones and lighting—basic necessities that families often lack elsewhere.
Complementing these lifesaving provisions are crucial social and educational services. True to his background as an educator, Kallakh placed strong emphasis on preserving children’s access to learning. Inside the camp, he established a makeshift school offering Arabic, English, and mathematics, ensuring that students continue to receive instruction even in the midst of displacement.
Recognizing the psychological burden carried by displaced and orphaned children, the camp also organizes recreational and psychosocial activities like football, providing children with moments of normalcy and emotional relief. These elements are central to Kallakh’s humanitarian philosophy: that survival requires not only food and shelter but also dignity, structure, and emotional care.
One of the most significant partnerships supporting Al-Baraka’s work is with UNICEF, which plays a key role in sustaining the camp’s education and healthcare components. UNICEF has provided essential school supplies, stationery, and salaries for teachers, enabling consistent instruction. It also supports the camp’s medical services, helping establish a dedicated medical point that offers basic healthcare and referrals. These contributions allowed Al-Baraka to transition from informal tented classrooms toward the development of a more stable school environment—an effort he hopes to fully realize by replacing tents with permanent structures to improve comfort and safety for students.
Daily operations at the camp are overseen directly by Kallakh, who manages logistics, supervises volunteers, liaises with partners, and organizes supply distributions. This includes coordination with supporting organizations, individual private donors, and diaspora businesspeople who contribute food, water, and hot meals. His hands-on leadership style ensures that services continue despite recurring shortages, security risks, and disruptions in aid delivery, and his work stands as a prominent example of community-based humanitarian action in one of the most challenging environments in the world.