The healthcare situation in Gaza is a catastrophe. Medical aid has not entered through the border crossings since March 2 due to Israel’s blockade of the strip. Not only are lifesaving medication and supplies prohibited from entering, but, for the most part, so are medical missions with foreign doctors and nurse delegates. Medical evacuations have been few and far between, preventing those who need care from leaving. Yet the bombing, the shootings, the famine, the chronic illnesses… none of this has stopped.
The Sameer Project x Translating Falasteen has been supplying medication, treatments, visits to doctors, wound care, specialist appointments, physiotherapy, psychotherapy, and has been collecting documents to facilitate evacuations in the North, Center, and South of Gaza for one year. Depending on the patient, location and the type of help needed, we have been supporting medical care from our North and South campaigns. Now, as the situation is deteriorating and we are stepping up to do more, we have decided to make a focused “Medical Care” campaign.
In addition to our South medical point, we are opening up a new medical point in the North, in the overcrowded and underserved Port Camp. The “Translating Falasteen x The Sameer Project Port Camp Medical Point” will have full service care including a doctor, nurses, a dentist, and a physiotherapist. After the initial installation costs, it will be approximately $20,000 to keep it up and running and to keep medication in stock.
Funds raised will be used for the following:
- Purchase sourced medication from private pharmacies for patients referred to us
- Support the soon-to-be-opened Translating Falasteen x The Sameer Project Port Camp Medical Point, in the North
- Supply medication not available in hospital pharmacies to patients
- Purchase supplies like gauze, iodine, antiseptics, antibiotics, wheelchairs, crutches, walkers, etc. for those with “war injuries”
- Fund our “Wound Care” project—traveling doctors and nurses who treat those who otherwise would be in the hospital in their tents, providing dressing changes, medication, and physiotherapy
- In-clinic physiotherapy sessions for children suffering from brain atrophy and mental and physical delays
- Specialized formula for malnourished babies and toddlers
- Fortified nutritional supplements for malnourished children
- Medical Days for skin diseases, new mothers, and injuries
- Dental Days both mobile in camps and in clinics
- Provide food or cash aid/e-wallets to “special circumstance” patients
- Secure aid for hospitals that are not provided by the Ministry of Health
Everything we source, purchase, and provide is already in Gaza. But stocks are running out. This is why otherwise free medication and supplies are sold at exorbitant prices and must be searched for across numerous pharmacies and medical suppliers. We have a network of nurses and doctors to help us provide what others can’t. This work should be done by large relief organizations and iNGOs but because of the difficulty operating in Gaza and since the borders are closed, many are rendered useless and it has fallen on The Sameer Project to fill the gaps left by them.
We carry out large-scale campaigns to mitigate outbreaks of contagious diseases, we provide hospitals (such as Nasser) with formula, we bring fresh vegetables to cancer patients (like at Al Helou), and we give aid and assistance to those who are awaiting evacuation (also bringing them to our Refaat Alareer Camp) to keep them stable enough to travel.
We have named the campaign after our recently martyred South coordinator and camp manager, Mosab Ali, who also worked on his own mental health and physical rehabilitation project, focusing on healing those who are suffering. He would often come across those injured and too poor to afford treatment and call our doctors to help. He ran The Refaat Alareer Camp and managed 30+ families with critically ill and injured members. And Mosab himself had a son who was medically evacuated to Qatar with his wife and other two children. It is in his honor that we continue to offer medical support to those in need.
We spend on average $5,000 every 10 days on medication for patients, $3,500 for every restock of the medical point in the South, $10,000 every 1.5-2 months on our wound care project, and more expenses based on the availability and cost of vegetable parcels, formula, supplements, and supplies for our medical days. Each Medical Day, whether in the North or South, averages around $1,000, and we host several per week. Every day produces more wounded, the sick get sicker, and those with chronic diseases suffer. Children are dying as they await evacuation. Cancer patients have no palliative care. Painkillers are scarce. We cannot solve many of these problems, only aid and delegations will (not to mention a ceasefire and opening the borders), but, with your help, we can provide some medical care, what is available, to SAVE LIVES in Gaza.
You can donate to the Sameer Project here.
