$1.5 million of medicine en route to Gaza

Barbara Lubin, Founder and Director of Middle East Children's Alliance, at Cairo airport amidst boxes of medicine for children and infants including antibiotics and vitamin supplements. MECA's shipment for 4 tons of medicine left Cairo today.

Dr. Mona El-Farra, MECA's Director of Gaza Projects, along with Sharon Wallace and other friends label the boxes of medicine "Gift from Middle East Children's Alliance for the Children of Gaza"



Barbara, Dr. Mona, Sharon and other friends in Egypt went to label the boxes carrying four tons of medicine - including antibiotics and vitamin supplements - for children and infants in Gaza. These medications were requested by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society of the Gaza Strip and Ard Al-Insan.

On Monday, Barbara will try to enter Gaza to donate an ambulance equipped as a mobile intensive care unit as well as medicine and supplies for operating rooms.

On Tuesday, MECA's donations of wheelchairs, powdered milk, fortified cereal, and coloring books and crayons are scheduled to arrive in Gaza.

Visiting Gaza's Injured at the Palestine Hospital: This is the Moment for Change

Today was exhausting but productive.

Dr. Mona and I went to the Palestine Hospital in Cairo today to visit civilians injured in the Israeli attacks on Gaza. More than 200 injured children, men and women from Gaza have been transferred to hospitals in Egypt for immediately needed medical care; however thousands of injured civilians are still trapped in Gaza.

Dr. Mona spent much of the day speaking with doctors and patients at the Palestine Hospital. “Many patients have arrived at the hospital with severe burns from white phosphorous. But the doctors and hospital director also believe Israel is using new weapons. For the first time they are seeing patients who have very small injuries or entry wounds but when they do x-rays there is severe damage inside. Many of my colleagues in Gaza have also observed new types of injuries that are difficult to treat.” She added, “Unfortunately, medical workers in Gaza are too busy trying to save lives and they don’t have the time or possibility to investigate.” Israel continues to prevent international journalists from entering Gaza.

I met with four patients and say the real, human cost of Israel’s criminal attacks on Gaza. Today I spoke with a boy from Khan Younis who had both his legs amputated, along with countless other injuries to his body. More than 1000 people in Gaza have been killed, including hundreds of children.

After leaving the hospital we went on with our aid work for Gaza and purchased 5 tons of baby cereal that will feed 3000 children (6 months +) for one month. I know this aid work is important.
But it is wrong to call for humanitarian aid, a ceasefire, or rebuilding Gaza without addressing the the root of the problem. The people of Gaza need their freedom. Without the Israeli occupation that uprooted them from their homes in 1948; destroyed countless acres of agricultural land; closed Gaza's borders for imports and exports; and bombed houses, universities, hospitals, and mosques, the people of Gaza could live in dignity. They wouldn't need to wait for the international community to send help because they could provide for themselves. Now is the time for boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel.

Solidarity and Resistance to Total Destruction: Update on MECA's Emergency Shipment for Gaza

by Sharon Wallace

I feel like I have been here for weeks, not just four days. I've never been involved directly in acquiring material aid. It is a frustrating, tiring, and, at times, maddening process. But after four days of Cairo traffic, long office visits, and too many phone calls we have been quite successful. We have acquired an ambulance that is equipped as a mobile intensive care unit. Speed in medical response saves lives. This is the ambulance that was requested. Gaza has lost many of its ambulances due to break downs and also due to Israeli targeting of ambulances.

Wheelchairs are also needed and we obtained 45 of them. Our contacts in Gaza have asked us to send powdered milk, water (6L bottles), small blankets, and baby cereals. By tomorrow evening we will have all of this lined up and by Thursday we plan to be back at the Rafah Crossing between Egypt and Cairo.

The Arab Doctors Union is helping us transport the aid and drive the ambulance. The coordination of solidarity is amazing. Everyone seems either to be involved directly or want to assist in some way. We visit the warehouses to purchase goods and they donate additional amounts (for example: 5 extra wheelchairs, extra milk, etc.).

In between tasks, Dr. Mona, Barbara, and I swap stories and experiences over the years in Palestine, Iraq, Central America and other areas one or the other has been involved in. As we talk, Dr. Mona's phone rings, another call from the depths of horror in Gaza. "They are bombing again--from the air, from the sea"; "I've lost my neighbor, my cousin, my child" The stories stop time and hurt the heart. One man called and told us about his neighbor, a 70 year-old man. He is terrified. He was sitting on his step, awaiting another night of missiles. Then he suddenly jumps up and tells his friend, "I must leave, excuse me, I may die tonight so I have to go and make love to my wife." And off he went.

Sharon Wallace is a member of Louisville Committee for Peace in the Middle East and a long-time supporter of the Middle East Children's Alliance. She is in Egypt with MECA staff Barbara Lubin and Dr. Mona El-Farra procuring items for an emergency shipment to Gaza.

Photos from Rafah and Purchasing Supplies

On Friday, I visited the Rafah Crossing between Egypt and Cairo. Dr. Mona wanted to assess the situation at the border before coming with our trucks next week.
Trucks of aid waiting to enter Gaza. Friday, January 9, 2009

A bomb hits Rafah, just a few hundred feet from where we are standing at the border. Friday, January 9, 2009.
Dr. Mona and I met people working with the Arab Doctors Union at the border. This turned into a great partnership as the Union offered to pay for the transportation of our shipment to the border. Now all of the donations to MECA can be used on buying much-needed medicine and supplies. Friday, January 9, 2009.
Dr. Mona and I browse different wheelchair models from a company in Cairo. I know quite a bit about wheelchairs and was able to select the best model to send to Gaza. Saturday, January 10, 2009.
After two weeks of constant Israeli attacks and almost two years of living under siege, the children in Gaza are very traumatized. One of our trucks will include crayons, coloring books, toys, and soccer balls. In a way, these items are emergency supplies too. Saturday, January 10, 2009.

We are waiting now for our ambulance to be ready (it will take a few days) and then we will head back to Rafah with our trucks holding the ambulance, wheelchairs, powdered milk, baby cereal, emergency room supplies including anesthesia drugs, and children's toys. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society of the Gaza Strip will meet us at the border and distribute these supplies to help children and families in Gaza.

Meanwhile the WHO is sending four tons of medications for children and infants by air to Tel Aviv and then into Gaza. MECA purchased this shipment at a discounted rate thanks to the help of Medical Teams International.

I am so thankful to all of MECA's supporters and partners who are making this shipment possible. In the face of so much death and destruction, your support for children in Gaza means so much.

But what the children need more than anything is an end to the Israeli airstrikes, tank shellings, and ground invasion. Please continue to send letters, write op-eds, attend demonstrations, and build campaigns for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. It is up to all of us to make Gaza a safe place for children.

The Real News About Gaza

I arrived in Cairo late Thursday night to accompany an emergency medical shipment to Gaza. I had been following the news about Gaza very closely from the United States. For the last two weeks the TV and radio were constantly blairing in my home, office, and car. I read the newspaper every morning. But in the last day and a half I discovered that the situation for children and families in Gaza is even worse than I thought.

Yesterday I drove to the Rafah Crossing point between Egypt and Gaza. Watching Gaza from a distance of only 300 feet, I saw Israeli airplanes and drones flying over Palestinian homes. I heard shelling from tanks. But even worse, I heard loud booms that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere. For a few moments I felt the same excruciating fear that people in Gaza have been living with for fifteen days and nights.

Last night at the hotel I watched Al-Jazeera news with my colleague, Dr. Mona El-Farra. She translated for me as a young boy in a Gaza hospital described seeing his mother, brothers, and sisters killed. I saw photos and video clips of the 230 dead children, the four children who were found without food and water next to the bodies of their dead parent, and hundreds of babies and children with shrapnel wounds, burns, and every other injury imaginable. We don't see this on the news in the US.

The difference in media coverage between the Arab world and the Western, sanitized media is shocking. There is no way, living in the United States, that the people can know about the horror that people in Gaza are living day after day.