PCRF’s founder Steve Sosebee talks about the REACH project
We are honored to partner with Cycling4Gaza and the many dedicated volunteers from all over the world who support their great deeds. This partnership will enable us to focus on addressing the terrible human crisis facing children in the besieged Gaza Strip. Our goal in the REACH (Reaching Every Affected Child in Gaza) project is to identify every sick and injured child in Gaza in need of specialized medical care, and to provide them with the surgery that they need but cannot get within the exhausted local healthcare system.
The PCRF was created as a nonprofit, nonpolitical medical relief organization during the first Intifada, by concerned people who were seeking ways to contribute positively to the humanitarian needs of children under Israeli military occupation. Over the past twenty-two years, we have sent over 1,000 children from Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Iraq for free surgery in North and South America, Europe, Asia and other parts of the Middle East. We have treated over 10,000 children through direct surgery by hundreds of visiting teams from all over the world.The PCRF has field staff and offices throughout the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Lebanon to ensure that we are able to identify and support the care of children in need.
In addition to being the main organization that sends children abroad for free healthcare and brings in expert surgery teams to provide training for local medical personnel, we also run many different humanitarian programs and projects in the region. This year, we opened the first and only public pediatric cancer department in Palestine.
Through the REACH project, our goal with Cycling4Gaza is to reach deep into the most neglected and oppressed areas of the Gaza Strip to find every child suffering from a medical condition and to provide them with the care and support that they need. This includes bringing together volunteer surgery teams to treat these children, providing medical supplies and equipment to improve the infrastructure of hospitals, sending children abroad for care, and training staff on the ground in order to improve the long-term viability of local doctors.
We are honored to have this new relationship with Cycling4Gaza and are convinced that only through unity and cooperation are we able to overcome the many challenges that face organizations working to better people’s lives in Palestine.
In solidarity and appreciation,
Steve Sosebee
President & CEO
The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund
Ramallah, Palestine
