Throughout the month of August, the PCRF has been distributing school bags for poor children before they start the fall school-year, as well as basic foodstuff for hungry children in the besieged Gaza Strip.  Hundreds of children have been provided free school bags by the PCRF this year, and thousands more over the past few years, in an effort to ensure that they can start the school year out with basic supplies....

On August 5, 13-year-old Abdulrahman Almotawaq from Jebalia in the northern Gaza Strip had neurosurgery at the Medical Center in Columbus, Georgia by Dr. Said Elshihabi of the Columbus Spinal and Neurological Center.  Abdulrahman was injured by an Israeli shell on January 9, 2009 when an IDF shell hit his home where he and his family were seeking refuge.  While several members of his family were injured, Abdulrahman...

On Tuesday, July 27th, Nidal Abuarra, a 9-year old boy from the West Bank, underwent surgery at the Scottsdale Health-Shea in Scottsdale, Arizona. This surgery was the second in a series of plastic and reconstructive surgeries that will help treat third-degree burns that Nidal suffered when he was an infant. On Tuesday, Nidal had skin, ear and lip revision, as well as scars removed from his chest and hands....

On July 3, a 5-member team of surgeons arrived in the besieged Gaza Strip for a week of neurosurgery and hand surgery on poor and needy patients, as well as training for local doctors at the Nasser Government Hospital in Khan Younis. This is the second mission to Gaza in 2010, as the team also worked there in January, in cooperation with the PCRF and the Consulate of France in East Jerusalem. The team was...

Six-year-old Yousuf receives surgery on his badly burned feet, helping him to live normally Dubai: Palestinian boy Yousuf Abu Roub has bright honey-coloured eyes and a big smile. Like any six-year-old, he spends most of his days playing, laughing and talking about his future hopes to become a bodyguard. Nothing about the friendly six-year-old belies the suffering he has endured since the age of two. The toddler...

June 12th marked the start of the 2010 summer camp season for young children in Central Gaza.  Each year, the PCRF sponsors dozens of summer camps throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip in an attempt to provide young children with fun and learning activities that give them some relief from some of the everyday struggles of war and occupation. On June 12th, the PCRF, in cooperation with the Al Braij Rehabilitation...

Led by surgeon Dr. Anastasios Polimenakos, an Assistant Professor of Surgery at the Rush Center for Congenital & Structural Heart Disease and The Heart Institute for Children at Hope Children’s Hospital, the team included ICU nurses Kevin Rice, Erica Bak and Patricia Wojtyla, OR nurse Mary Hayes, perfusionist Michelle York and Respiratory Therapist Yesenia Bobadilla. This was their first mission...

Palestinian Nihal Orabi was in a state of shock when she took a look at her newborn child. The baby girl was born with her liver and twisted intestines outside of her body, and the doctors at Nablus Specialty Hospital near the West Bank town of Jenin told her there was nothing they could do for Salma Basam. “They said she is going to die,” said Orabi, 27. “I started screaming, “No, no, not...

At the end of April, a 3-member team from Tulsa, Oklahoma arrived in the West Bank town of Hebron to start a week of training local doctors and nurses, as well as EMTs, in Pediatric Advanced Life Support Training (PALs). The team included Dr. Patrick Van Schoyck and two RNs, Debi Lammert and Gaye Marie Rotramel. The team worked at the Al Ahli Hospital and held training courses throughout the week for personnel...

On April 26, 18-month-old Salma Basam from the West Bank town of Jenin had pediatric surgery by Dr. Saad Saad at the K. Hovnanian Children’s Hospital, which is part of the Jersey Shore University Medical Center. The child was born with a birth defect that could not be treated in Palestine. Dr. Saad volunteered his time to treat this child, as the hospital provided their services as well on a humanitarian...