Health care — both physical and mental — is always in demand for a population that sees its own crushed under buildings and forcibly removed from homes.
Health care — both physical and mental — is always in demand for a population that sees its own crushed under buildings and forcibly removed from homes.
As the situation in Palestine worsens, you may be looking for organizations that help in the region. There are many reasons to donate to Palestine, but the main one is preventing the slow extermination of the Palestinian people, especially children.
In Palestine, even those who are in their hometowns and have citizenship are treated as lesser. They’re still fighting for their rights to stay in their homes in Sheikh Jarrah, Silwad, and other Palestinian neighborhoods and cities.
Meanwhile, others have homes in Gaza with hardly any electricity or running water, and they, like their brothers and sisters in the West Bank, face the same question under different circumstances: how long will I have my home?
It’s a matter of displacement — internal or as refugees abroad — on their ancestors’ soil. Will they be forced to choose between destroying their own homes or paying an absurd fine to have it destroyed? Or will they be victims to merciless bombings that cause long-term physical and psychological damage while destroying public infrastructure, increasing malnutrition rates and decimating their economy, making it increasingly difficult to sustain themselves?
Regardless, Palestinian suffering is avoidable through policy change, which would not even have been necessary had there been implementation and respect for international law that ended illegal settlements and life-threatening blockades. While Palestinians at home and abroad desperately await policy change, there are ways to donate to Palestine and help now.
Immediate food aid is always important, and so is long-term food sustainability. Projects like greenhouse gardens help Palestinians in Gaza grow their own tomatoes and more. Education and health care are critical as well, and both are also part of an orphan sponsorship program that helps vulnerable children throughout Palestine.
Health care — both physical and mental — is always in demand for a population that sees its own crushed under buildings and forcibly removed from homes. Palestinians in Gaza whose homes are destroyed also get support to have them rebuilt. These are all services Zakat Foundation of America helps provide in Palestine.
The international humanitarian organization, now in its 20th year, has been providing relief in Palestine since its early days. Zakat Foundation of America partners with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to rebuild homes in Gaza; it provides greenhouse farming with American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA); it even provides health care in partnership with the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF).
This is what it means to donate to Palestine.
And all this is in addition to Zakat Foundation of America’s own work, like an ongoing program to support Aziz Al-Kolak, a child left all alone as 23 members of his family were killed in airstrikes. He spent 6 hours buried under the rubble before rescuers took him to get medical assistance.
“I watched my mom and dad bleed to death,” he said. He realized he was the only survivor.
Aziz represents thousands of innocent Palestinian children who lost everyone in an instant. He represents the feeling of being alone in a world where cruelty against his people is often unchecked. But he also represents the need for and existence of undying humanitarian support. Children like Aziz are the reason support for Palestinian rights cannot be limited to a two-week trend.
Palestinian humanitarian relief is an ongoing necessity. Donating is the first step to changing the status quo.
