Resourceful Gazans find work to overcome poverty - in pictures

Palestinian couple grow aloe vera on roof and use oil to make soap

Palestinians Salama Badwan, 40, and his wife Alaa Badwan, 37, tend to aloe vera plants on the roof of their Gaza Strip home. All photos: AFP

Ms Badwan extracts oil to make soap at her home in Deir Al Balah

With scarce opportunities, many are finding alternative ways to make a living

The Gaza Strip has a poverty rate of 53 per cent, according to official Palestinian statistics

The Gaza Strip is under a crippling Israeli-led blockade

The Badwans pose with their aloe vera plants

Ms Badwan arranges fresh home-made soap

The Israeli blockade has been in place since Hamas took power in 2007

Some more of the soap made by the Badwans

An aerial view of the soap-making operation

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