The Family Support Committee is involved in three key projects:
Rafah Child Sponsorship
MRSCP is working through KinderUSA to allow interested persons to sponsor a needy child in Rafah. The cost is $50 per month, 10% of which will assist the women in Rafah who have been asked to identify and track those children deemed the neediest. KinderUSA is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, and all donations are tax deductible.The goal of the sponsorship project is to reach the neediest Palestinian children. KinderUSA works with families and children throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Its Board of Directors has agreed to allow KinderUSA to serve as the liaison between Madison and Rafah, allowing those interested here to sponsor a child from Rafah specifically, and whose family earns less than $2 per day. As Rafah is the poorest city in the occupied Palestine, there is no shortage of children to help. Social Workers will conduct quarterly visits to the children and report back to the sponsors and headquarters on their condition. This is an important, key project and we welcome any volunteers to assist in developing it. The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project is on the Advisory Board of KinderUSA.
Rafah Craft Sales
During a visit to the Human Appeal Organization in Rafah last January, Su’ad Abu Khatla’, an enterprising and talented woman, commented that there are many beautiful, hand-made crafts in Rafah but no market in which to sell them.Now the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project Family Support Committee has partnered with the Rafah branch of the General Union of Palestinian Women to bring beautiful embroidered handicrafts to Madison. These fair-trade crafts help support the women and their families, and help ensure that the art of Palestinian embroidery, or al-Tatreez, continues to flourish.
This project requires people with persistence and dedication to fair trade and global exchange, and who are interested in advancing the cause of women in Palestine.
Gaza Community Mental Health Support and Pen Pals
Dr. Manal Awad, director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Rafah office, has pioneered the Women’s Empowerment Project on issues of domestic violence, child abuse and child trauma from the on-going Israeli occupation.Our committee's goal is three-fold: to send materials on domestic violence, general women’s issues, and child abuse and trauma to the center for their use, to send interested volunteers with the appropriate credentials to Rafah to work with these women and children, and to establish a sister-to-sister pen pal project. All messages can be translated here and sent DHL for efficient and guaranteed delivery. Once the project is underway, e-mail contact may also be used. Enterprising individuals interested in setting up the groundwork for this project should contact us.
Madison-Rafah Sister City Project (MRSCP) was founded in 2003 to foster people-to-people relationships between the citizens of Madison and Rafah. Located on the border with Egypt, Rafah's economy and city infrastructure have been devastated by Israel's occupation. MRSCP has focused its efforts on both humanitarian aid and community education, including lectures and films on the conflict in Israel-Palestine.
Support is critical because the Israeli occupation has destroyed the economic base of Rafah, creating unemployment of over 60 percent, widespread malnutrition, and shortages of other necessities like housing and clean water for thousands. The burden of keeping body and soul together is increasingly falling upon women.
Although the level of deadly violence has recently declined, the conditions of life for Rafah's citizens have not improved. Contrary to mainstream media reports, under "disengagement" Gaza will likely remain the world's largest open-air prison, since Israel plans to tighten its control over the borders of Gaza, restricting commerce and prohibiting the population from working inside Israel itself.
Donations
Checks to "Madison-Rafah Sister City Project" with the memo "Family Support Fund - (project)" may be mailed to:Madison-Rafah Sister City Project
P.O. Box 55371
Madison, WI 53705For further information, contact rafahsistercity@yahoo.com.
visitors since July 13, 2003
