Gaza emergency Medicine enroute
November 15, 2012
Islamic Relief, the leading humanitarian agency operating in Gaza, is rushing $1.5 million worth of medical supplies to hospitals and health clinics, as the latest conflict threatens to exacerbate a chronic shortage of medical supplies. The charity is appealing for funds to help fund the urgent need for essential drugs and other supplies.
“For some time there has been a chronic shortage of medical supplies in Gaza, and we are appealing for support to ensure that effective treatment can be given to those affected by the latest conflict, which is bound to exacerbate that shortage,” says Dr Mohammed Al-Sousi, Head of Islamic Relief’s Middle East region. “We are also calling for calm on both sides lest the conflict should escalate – the last war in Gaza at the end of 2008 lasted barely three weeks but in that short time 1,300 people were killed, 5,000 injured and 40,000 were driven from their homes.”
The medical supplies being provided by Islamic Relief include a wide range of essential drugs, including antibiotics and anaesthetics, and disposable sterile supplies such as tubing, surgical gloves, needles and syringes.
Islamic Relief has worked in Gaza since 1998, with a wide range of projects encompassing emergency relief, child welfare, education, health and nutrition, livelihoods support, and water and sanitation. In the wake of the previous Gaza war it mounted a $50 million emergency response and reconstruction programme over two years, in 2009 and 2010. Its health programmes have included equipping and renovating the intensive care units and emergency departments of nine hospitals, five of them in Gaza City, and renovating 15 of Gaza’s 57 government health clinics.
For more information, photographs or to arrange an interview please contact Zaid Al-Rawni 1.905.332.4673 zaid@islamicreliefcanada.org
