Dearest Friends and Family,

In just under 2 months I, along with a group of brave individuals, will be participating in a fundraising event called Cycle for Gaza where we will be cycling 360KM over the course of 3 days from Philadelphia to Washington DC from September 19-21. Cycle for Gaza (C4G) has organized five cycles since 2009, covering over 1800km across the UK and France, Italy, Jordan, Turkey and Germany, with a sixth cycle just around the corner. They have raised over 650,000 GBP in support of healthcare and education projects in the Gaza Strip and in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

C4G and their charity partners, mainly the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund (PCRF), have directly impacted the lives of over 8,000 children in projects focused on early childhood education, mental health support and psychosocial work, rehabilitation for children with disabilities, and maternal and child healthcare. 

A bit about Cycle for Gaza:

Cycling4Gaza is an independent initiative founded by a group of concerned young people in the wake of the 2009 war on Gaza. Our mission is to raise awareness about the ongoing blockade on the Gaza Strip and to raise funds for carefully selected non-profit organizations that provide critical educational and health support to vulnerable Palestinian communities; with a final goal of creating a sustainable project. We do this by mobilizing people from all over the world to come together in a yearly cycling challenge in a collective effort to raise awareness and resources. In 2013, with the support and cooperation of Cycling4Gaza, the PCRF provided 630 children in Gaza major surgery in cardiac and cardiology, neurosurgery, plastic and reconstructive surgery, urological surgery, hand and orthopedic surgery and general pediatric surgery. 

A bit about PCRF:

• The PCRF, a non-profit, non- political medical relief organization, was founded in 1991 by concerned people who were looking for ways to contribute to the humanitarian needs of children under Israeli military occupation.
• Over the past twenty-two years, the PCRF has treated 10,000 children through direct surgery carried out by hundreds of visiting teams of doctors and specialists from all over the world.
• The PCRF has also sent over 1,000 children from Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Iraq for free surgeries in North and South America, Europe, Asia and other parts of the Middle East..
• In 2013, the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund launched the REACH (Reaching Every Affected Child in Gaza) Gaza Project in partnership with Cycle for Gaza. The long-term aim of the REACH project is to support every child in need of serious medical care in the Gaza Strip.

The 3-Day Cycle:

Day 1: Philadelphia to Lancaster: Distance 130KM

Day 2: Lancaster to Cockeysville: Distance 100KM

Day 3: Cockeysville to Washington DC: Distance 130KM

Please donate whatever amount you can to help me reach and hopefully surpass my goal as every dollar has a direct impact in the significant improvement of the lives of children in need. Also, your donations will help give me the strength and determination needed to complete this crazy challenge!

Lots of Love

Sari El-Khalil

REACH Gaza – The 2014 Project Second Year Running

REACH Gaza aims to improve and strengthen the currently underdeveloped health-care system in Gaza, particularly when it comes to providing surgery for children in need of medical care.  In addition to causing a chronic shortage of medical equipment and supplies in Gaza, the 6 year long siege on the Gaza Strip has prevented children and their families from travelling freely into the West Bank and abroad in order to receive the urgent care and treatment they need.

The REACH Gaza project will address each of these issues and work towards creating a more durable, efficient and sustainable healthcare system by carrying out the following tasks:

• Identifying every sick and injured child in the besieged Gaza Strip in need of specialised medical care through a team of ground staff who will form an intricate network of field offices throughout Gaza
• Creating a pioneering centralised database that will include each child’s medical condition and history
• Providing each child with the required treatment through sponsoring treatment locally, visiting international volunteer missions and sending children abroad for care.

$250,000 (£150,000) was raised in 2013 in support of the REACH Gaza project. 53% of these funds directly resulted in:

• The treatment of 630 children in Gaza
• Through the work of 18 volunteer international medical teams
• Caring for children in need of cardiac, orthopaedic and general medical treatment

The funds also allowed for the development of the first medical database in Gaza with 496 child cases registered.

The remaining funds from 2013 will be used to continue providing essential medical treatment to the children in Gaza, in addition to all the funds raised in 2014 from our 6th cycling challenge taking place in the US from Philadelphia to Washington DC on the 19th of September. With these two cycles we aim to support the REACH Gaza project up to the end of 2015; caring for over 1000 children in Gaza.