This article reminded me of the stories the Doctors of the world used to tell us.
Last summer, while working with the Doctors of the world, there were those cigarette breaks where they will answer to our curious questions: were you in Indonesia after the Tsunami? Were you not scared? etc.
They would tell simple stories, say that fear is always there but you get used to it. But always their stories would fall back to Palestine. Since Cyprus is so close, the DofTW travel there often, the Palestinian children know their names. They tell stories of how they enter Gaza after hours of being searched by the Israeli Army, and how after they walk through the gate into Gaza, they feel on their backs the guns of Israeli soldiers following them.
"They do it just to scare us so that we won't go back again" says Maria, one of the doctors. "But we'll keep going. They wouldn't shoot us. We carry medicine!"
One of the reasons that their stories return to Gaza, is their love for the people there, how welcomed they feel everytime they go. And mind you, their days there are not field trip. They see people from 9 am to 9 pm nonstop and perform several surgeries during a day. And as they said over the summer, it's been many months since the Israeli government allowed them to visit last. They don't even give them reasons. And from what we all read in the news these days, it seems that the Israeli government denies medical help to Palestinians at the time they need it the most. It's a thousand crimes contained only in this refusal of them to allow volunteer help to those who need it for their life.
Note:
Doctors of the World is an international non for profit organization consisting of doctors, nurses, medical care providers etc, that travel to countries where medical care is in need (third world countries, war-struck, all other forms of devastation struck countries) to offer their services and deliver medicine and medical material as needed, always free of charge, under the most difficult conditions.
Last summer, while working with the Doctors of the world, there were those cigarette breaks where they will answer to our curious questions: were you in Indonesia after the Tsunami? Were you not scared? etc.
They would tell simple stories, say that fear is always there but you get used to it. But always their stories would fall back to Palestine. Since Cyprus is so close, the DofTW travel there often, the Palestinian children know their names. They tell stories of how they enter Gaza after hours of being searched by the Israeli Army, and how after they walk through the gate into Gaza, they feel on their backs the guns of Israeli soldiers following them.
"They do it just to scare us so that we won't go back again" says Maria, one of the doctors. "But we'll keep going. They wouldn't shoot us. We carry medicine!"
One of the reasons that their stories return to Gaza, is their love for the people there, how welcomed they feel everytime they go. And mind you, their days there are not field trip. They see people from 9 am to 9 pm nonstop and perform several surgeries during a day. And as they said over the summer, it's been many months since the Israeli government allowed them to visit last. They don't even give them reasons. And from what we all read in the news these days, it seems that the Israeli government denies medical help to Palestinians at the time they need it the most. It's a thousand crimes contained only in this refusal of them to allow volunteer help to those who need it for their life.
Note:
Doctors of the World is an international non for profit organization consisting of doctors, nurses, medical care providers etc, that travel to countries where medical care is in need (third world countries, war-struck, all other forms of devastation struck countries) to offer their services and deliver medicine and medical material as needed, always free of charge, under the most difficult conditions.
