Gaza NGO seeks US$100,000 emergency fund...

By Nur Ashikin Abdul Aziz

Gaza's National Centre For Community Rehabilitation (NCCR), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in Gaza, Palestine is seeking an emergency fund of US$100,000 to provide care for physically-challenged people in the area.

NCCR Founder and Executive Director, Fatma A. Al Gussain said the money could provide home care services to some 300 injured and physically-challenged men, women and children, who were already registered on the organisation's waiting list, for a duration of six months.

"Especially after the (Palestinian protest) Great March of Return, every Friday, we have over 100 injured people, and about 50 of the cases involve children. We help these people with home care services such as nursing and psychological support after they received treatment from the hospital," she told Bernama in an interview at Wisma Bernama today.

The Gaza native said during her visit here, the NCCR had received a pledge of a US$34,000 grant from Malaysia's Yayasan Hasanah, a foundation of Khazanah Nasional Berhad, the strategic investment fund of the Malaysian Government.

Fatma said home care services were very important in Gaza as most of the people did not have transportation to get to the hospital for follow-up treatments, adding that many of these cases were even referred to the NCCR by the hospitals as they lacked resources.

She said there were currently about 40,000 physically-challenged people in Gaza, 54 per cent of whom were children. The number of babies born with deformities was on the rise, she revealed.

Palestinian protests, called the Great March of Return, began on March 30, when Palestinians marched towards the Israel border to return to their land which was confiscated by the Israeli forces.

According to a Palestine report, between March 30, 2018 and mid-July, some 137 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces as a result of the Great March of Return on Gaza border.

Meanwhile, a United Nations report said since the start of the demonstrations and up to June 30, a total of 15,501 Palestinians were injured by Israeli forces, of whom 8,221, or over half, required hospitalisation.

Among those hospitalised, 63 per cent were for limb injuries. The report said that some injuries caused long-term disability.

The report further pointed out that as of July 3, a total of 61 people had their limbs amputated, 11 of whom were children.

Fatma said the NGO was also looking for long-term funding as it needed US$400,000 a year for its three programmes -- Home Care Programme,  Capacity Building Programme and Advocacy and Awareness Programme.

The NCCR, founded in 1995, is aimed at assisting female and male persons with physical disabilities to live independently and achieve individual life goals.