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The Gaza Strip, 26 miles long and only a few miles wide, is home to over a
million Palestinians, half below the age of 14. Two thirds are refugees,
many of whom live in eight densely-crowded refugee camps. Seven thousand
Israeli settlers had lived in 18 armed settlements in a "security zone"
before they were evacuated in 2005. Since the evacuation, Israel has kept
the Gaza Strip largely sealed off from the world, destroying its economy and
the hopes of people for a better future.
Restrictions imposed on Gaza during Israel's 40-year-long occupation have
condemned Palestinians to a life of extreme poverty, destitution and the
systematic violation of their human rights. The first intifada or uprising
against the Israeli occupation began in a Gaza refugee camp in 1987 and
lasted until 1993. Non-violent demonstrators, young stone-throwers, and the
broader community faced military repression, curfews, night raids, forced
expulsions, land seizures, and border closures that brought the economy to a
halt. More than 100,000 Palestinians were imprisoned by Israel during the
first intifada and most were tortured during interrogation.
During the second intifada, that began in September 2000, the Israeli army
repeatedly used heavy armaments, including tanks, F16s, and helicopter
gunships, against a defenseless civilian population. More than 4,200
Palestinians had been killed by mid 2007. Over 1000 homes have been
destroyed in the Gaza Strip's Rafah refugee camp alone, leaving 20,000
people homeless. The indiscriminate killing and destruction, the massive
physical and psychological injuries, the devastation of the land, homes and
the economy, are bound to have a lasting and severe impact on Palestinian
society.
The Gaza Community Mental Health Program (GCMHP) was established in 1990 by
Dr. Eyad el-Sarraj to meet the mental health needs of people who were
exposed on a daily basis to humiliation, loss of freedom, injury, detention,
destruction of homes and the loss of family members. Much of GCMHP's work is
directed at helping traumatized children, women who are victims of violence,
and the victims of torture.
The GCMHP now has hundreds of paid staff, a main facility in Gaza City, a
research center, and community mental health clinics in Gaza City, Khan
Younis, the Deir el-Balah refugee camp, and the Jabalya refugee camp. It has
also established the Rachel Corrie Women's Empowerment Project as well as
crisis intervention programs, a rehabilitation program for drug abusers, a
Children's Project, and a Training and Education Department that offers a
postgraduate diploma in Community Mental Health and Human Rights and courses
for teachers and nurses.
It has given individual psychiatric and
family therapy to tens of thousands of people. Through its crisis
interventions, trainings, hospital, school and prison visits, and public
awareness campaigns, it has reached one in ten persons in the Gaza Strip.
The Gaza Mental Health Foundation Inc. was formed in the USA in 2001 to
support the critically important work of providing mental health services
for the people of the Gaza Strip, especially the children who are its
future. A 2003 survey by the GCMHP reveals that only two percent of children
in the Gaza Strip displayed no symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder.
The Gaza Mental Health Foundation Inc. has also made it a priority to raise
funds for the Rachel Corrie Women's Empowerment Project. The Project, which
was founded in 1995, was re-named in memory of the 23-year-old American
peace activist Rachel Corrie, who was crushed to death in Rafah in March
2003 as she tried to prevent an armored Caterpillar bulldozer from
destroying Palestinian homes. Employing a staff of 75 women in its four
centers, it aims to improve the quality of life of women victims of
domestic, social and political violence.
It is difficult to imagine a future in which Palestinians and Israelis can
one day live peacefully together without the work of the GCMHP. What it is
doing to break the cycle of violence engendered by occupation needs our
support.
BOARD
OF DIRECTORS
Nancy Murray, President
Donald K. McInnes, Treasurer
J. Timothy Davis
Maya Carlson
Yale Rabin
Hilary Rantisi
Alice Rothchild
Sara Roy
Bill Slaughter
Ahmed Taha
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Cindy & Craig Corrie
Jess Ghannam
Ellis Goldberg
Elaine Hagopian
David Hall
John Pirroni
Yale Rabin
Ted Rynearson
Therese Saliba
Tom Suarez
David Trimble
Contact Gaza Mental Health Foundation by Email
or
at
Gaza
Mental Health Foundation, Inc
P.O. Box 495
Boston, MA 02112
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