For the first time Cycling4Gaza is coming to the US and I've decided to challenge myself to this 360km (roughly 220 miles) cycle from Phildadelphia to Washington DC in late September 2014. In order to do this, I need your help and support. To participate I must raise a minimum of $2,015 USD, but hope that together we can raise even more than that! The funds are going toward an important intiative in the Gaza Strip, and sadly, more than ever, these children need our help. 

This will be the sixth annual Cycling4Gaza event since 2009. This initiative has raised over 1 million USD in support of healthcare and education projects in the Gaza Strip and in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. Together with their chairty partners, they have directly impacted the lives of over 8,000 children in projects focused on early childhood educaiton, mental health support and psychosocial work, rehabilitation for children with disabilities, and maternal and child healthcare. 

The Palestinian Children's Relief Fund (PCRF) is one such charity partner that has worked tirelessly to implement healthcare projects across the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip. The PCRF is a non-profit, non-political medical relief organisation that has launched the REACH (Reaching Every Affected Child in Gaza) Gaza Project in partnership with Cycling4Gaza with a goal to support every child in need of serious medical care in the Gaza Strip. 

Please consider contributing what you can to this cause. I appreciate all of y'all's support! 

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.