AN APPEAL for the
Gaza Community Mental Health Program

As 2011 nears its end, please remember the people of Gaza with your donations.

The conditions in Gaza - documented in this November 2011 report by a Member of the European Parliament - have produced a mental health crisis, especially for Gaza’s children. Your tax-deductible check will be transferred in its entirety to the Gaza Mental Health Foundation and other projects outlined in our fundraising letter. Please make checks payable to the Gaza Mental Health Foundation, and mail to PO Box 495, Boston MA 02112.

 

Can I Dare?      by Eyad Sarraj

Yesterday, my six year old son Ali went to his swimming hour after school in Wafa hospital for the elderly in the eastern part of the town. It contains the only heated and covered swimming pool in Gaza.

Ali must swim as often as possible by doctors orders because of what is called 'Perth's disease' which affects his pelvis joints. So he goes to the pool every day. His doctors are confident that as long as he gets his exercise there will be a spontaneous recovery and no further specific treatment is needed.  cont'd...

 

The Gaza Mental Health Foundation Inc (brochure) was formed in the USA in 2001 to help provide mental health services for the people of the Gaza Strip, especially the children who are its future. It raises funds for the work of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program, which was established in 1990 by Dr. Eyad el-Sarraj to meet the mental health needs of people exposed on a daily basis to humiliation, injury, loss of freedom and the destruction of homes. It is difficult to imagine Israelis and Palestinians living peacefully together without the healing work of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (web sites www.gcmhp.org & www.gcmhp.net).

 

Your donation is tax-deductible to the extent provided by section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Appeal: The Future of the Gaza Strip Has Never Been So Bleak

"Siege and Mental Health" Conference  Gaza City & Ramallah, Oct 26-28, 2008

[video] Gaza in Crisis, with Nancy Murray and Noam Chomsky
Recorded in Wong Auditorium, Center for International Studies, MIT, January 21, 2011

For Gaza's Children, the Trauma never ends
by Mohammed Omer, January 23, 2011

Olof Palme Prize awarded to Dr. Eyad El Sarraj, director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme.

The 2010 Olof Palme Prize is awarded to the Palestinian psychiatrist Eyad El Sarraj, peace and human rights activist in Gaza, for his self-sacrificing and indefatigable struggle for common sense, reconciliation, and peace in a region characterized by violence, occupation, repression and human misery.

In his professional and political work, Eyad El-Sarraj has stood on the side of the individual human being, regardless of nationality, gender or social position. He has brought into the light the destructive influence of repression on mental health. He has shown the connections arising between confinement, hopelessness, desperation and violence, and how this is neglected by both Palestinian and Israeli authorities.

Eyad El-Sarraj gives hope and voice to a tormented people, and for a just peace between Israel and Palestine, and for reconciliation within Palestine itself.

Juan J. Lopez Ibor award
In 2010 Dr. El Sarraj also received the Juan J. Lopez Ibor award for psychiatry.

 

GMH Foundation receives generous donation
Donation made in memory of donor's parents and grandparents, who lost their homes and livelihoods in the Holocaust.

Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict
On September 15, 2009 a UN Fact Finding Mission led by the prominent South African justice Richard Goldstone released a 574-page report on Israel's war on Gaza. The report describes in often shocking detail the serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law committed by Israel during the conflict, some of which, the Mission states, amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity. (click here for text of the report)

Although the report also focused on actions taken by militias in Gaza and termed the firing of rockets at Israeli civilians a war crime, the US State Department has condemned it as one-sided and unfair to Israel. In reaching this conclusion, the US government ignored the fact that Israel had entirely refused to cooperate with the Mission and prevented it from entering Israel.

Click here to read Dr. Eyad el Sarraj's Open Letter to President Obama.

Gaza Under Siege  August 13, 2009
Video, produced by Jordan Flaherty and Lily Keber

No Safe Place
Report of the Independent Fact Finding Committee On Gaza, April 30 2009

Photos from Gaza  May, 2009
Tom Suarez

"Cockroach"  A brief account of the Erez Crossing, Israel, October 26, 2008
Tom Suarez

"Closed Zone" (animation)
March 4, 2009 -- Gisha - Legal Center for Freedom of Movement calls on the State of Israel to fully open Gaza's crossings

The Civil Society & Private Sector Initiative on Gaza’s Reconstruction and Development
February 23, 2009

High Profile U.S. Delegation Visits Gaza Community Mental Health Programme
February 19, 2009

The Destruction of Gaza
Nancy Murray, January 25, 2009

Gallery of photos of Gaza's child victims
The Guardian

When the guns die ...
Dr. Eyad Sarraj

Nancy Murray, interview with Dr. Elaine Hagopian, The Arabic Hour
VIDEO  or  just audio

Where has humanity gone? It’s gone from the Mideast
Luisa Morgantini, 12 January 2009

Field Update on Gaza from the Humanitarian Coordinator
United Nations, 12 January 2009

Health Situation in the Gaza Strip
World Health Orghanization, 12 January 2009

A 14-year-old in Gaza has one question: Why?
Eyad el-Sarraj, The Boston Globe, January 11, 2009

Health Situation in Gaza  World Health Organization, 6 Jan, 2009

Doctor's Video report from Gaza  5 January 09

OCHA Report on Gaza Humanitarian Situation 4 Jan, 2009

Life and Death under the F16s
Dr. Eyad el-Sarraj, Gaza, December 31, 2008

Best way to a secure Israel is Justice for Palestine
Dr. Eyad el-Sarraj, Gaza, December 31, 2008

Gaza Mental Health 2009 Brochure

Israeli blockade 'forces Palestinians to search rubbish dumps for food'
The Observer, 21 Dec 2008

VIDEO: Gaza in Crisis - December, 2008
Sonja Karkar

International Human Rights Day
Dec 10, 2008 -- GCMHP call for international protection of Palestinian citizens

Gaza: Silence is not an option
Richard Falk  (Dec 9, 2008)

Letter on travelling from Gaza for medical treatment
Dr. Eyad Sarraj

Internationals Fail to Break the Siege, but GCMHP Conference Goes On
Nancy Murray  Read online or download MS Word file

Conference Statement   Read online or download MS Word file

Conference Media (news, photos, papers, documents)

The Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza
Nancy Murray  Read online or download MS Word file

Commemorating the Naksa -- Evoking the Nakba
Nancy Murray  See Contents and download PDF  MIT Electronic Journal of Middle East Studies

 

The Free Gaza voyages

Relief boats have now broken Israel's siege of the Gaza strip three times, most recently on November 8. Eleven past and current members of European parliaments were among those on board, these being among 53 Parliamentarians who had recently been denied entrance into Gaza by Egypt at the Rafah checkpoint. See http://freegaza.org.
 

 
   

For more information
please
 contact Gaza Mental Health Foundation by Email

 

Gaza Mental Health
Foundation, Inc
P.O. Box 495
Boston, MA 02112

 

 

 

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