January, 06 2009, 04:00pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Barbara Lubin, Ziad Abbas
510-548-0542
510-812-9416 (© Lubin), 510-717-6640 (©Abbas)
Founder of US Aid Organization Brings Four Tons of Medicine to Gaza
BERKELEY, Calif.
As Israeli strikes from the ground, air and sea devastate the civilian population in the Gaza Strip, Barbara Lubin, Founder and Director of the Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA) will be traveling to Gaza tomorrow to bring four tons of medicines for infants and children that MECA purchased form Europe. In Cairo, Egypt, Ms. Lubin will meet MECA's Director of Gaza Projects Dr. Mona El-Farra, a Palestinian physician and human rights leader from Gaza. Together they will accompany a truck envoy carrying MECA's medical aid and additional emergency supplies to treat thousands of wounded civilians in Gaza.
"Children are being killed, wounded, orphaned and made homeless every day. This is a humanitarian crisis of enormous proportions and the Middle East Children's Alliance is determined to help the children, regardless of the obstacles and risks." says Lubin. 'We all have a responsibility to the children," she continues. "The death and destruction by the Israeli military, is approved and paid for by our own government. We must send help and we must demand the end of aid to Israel, just as people of conscience have demanded the end of U.S. aid to other countries who carry out barbaric attacks against civilians."
For more than two years Gaza residents have suffered from severe shortages of food, medicine, electricity and other basic necessities due to an Israeli blockade. Even before the recent air attacks and ground invasion, the health system was devastated by the blockade. Dr. El-Farra explains, "The shortage of power threatens the lives of patients on life-support machines and children in intensive care, as well as renal dialysis patients and others. The pharmacies were already nearly empty because of Israeli border closures and the cutoff of international aid. What little supplies were left have gone bad in the absence of refrigeration."
The Gaza Strip, one of the most densely populated places in the world, has been under Israeli military occupation for over forty years. Eighty percent of the population is refugees or the descendants of refugees from what is now Israel. More than fifty percent of the population-800,000-are children. In the last ten days 120 children have been killed by Israel's military attacks on Gaza. Hundreds more have suffered life-threatening wounds or will be left with permanent disabilities.
To help MECA send more medical aid to Gaza for thousands of sick and injured people living under siege, visit www.mecaforpeace.org
The Middle East Children's Alliance is a nonprofit organization working for the rights and the well-being of children in the Middle East. MECA supports dozens of community projects for Palestinian children and refugees from Syria. Since 1988 we have delivered $27 million in food and medical aid to Palestine, Iraq, and Lebanon. MECA welcomes the support of all people who care about children and their future.
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