In the beginning of May, MdM has resumed its emergency preparedness activities in Gaza, with the support of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs. These activities have proven to be essential to prevent the overload in Gaza hospitals, either in normal or exceptional circumstances, such as the November 2012 military operations. As a continuity of its programme launched in 2009, MdM currently trains 75 paramedics, nurses and doctors who are in charge of managing emergencies in primary health care centres. MdM also works with 810 community members, who are particularly affected during crisis situations; fishermen, farmers of the buffer zone between Gaza and Israel prone to tensions, and women groups. These people receive trainings in basic life support and coordinate their action with the emergency services of primary healthcare centres and hospitals.

At the hospital – Gaza © Giovanni Marrozzini

The humanitarian situation in Syria is worsening by the minute. The acts of violence perpetrated against civilians are intolerable. The numbers are terrifying: 70,000 people killed, 1 million refugees and 2 million people internally displaced. Summary executions, civilian populations held hostage and bombed, healthcare providers arrested, tortured and executed.

There is nowhere left to run and nowhere to find shelter. We call for a halt to hostilities so we can bring assistance to those in need. Preventing aid workers’ access to the Syrian people is yet another crime in this conflict and it is our duty to denounce it. Our silence makes us accountable to this massacre behind closed doors.

We cannot tolerate the unacceptable!

Support our appeal: appelsyrie.medecinsdumonde.org/EN/

What do you see when you are a 12 year-old child living in Occupied Palestinian Territory?
A photography exhibition by the children of the Nablus area that depicts their daily living environment

Opening ceremony: 11am on Monday 15th October 2012
Zafer Al-Masri Auditoriums, Old Campus, An-Najah National University, Nablus

What is it like to be a child in Occupied Palestinian Territory today? This and many other questions are asked and pondered as part of the photography exhibition ‘Palestine through my eyes’, organised by MdM on the old campus of An-Najah National University in Nablus.

A total of 90 images taken by twenty children from the villages of Ureef and Einabous will be on display to raise awareness of the difficulties the children face living in and around Nablus – a town surrounded by military check points, roadblocks, and settlements. The twenty children who took the pictures one year and a half ago will be present during the opening ceremony to share and comment on what they tried to express with their pictures and on their experience as ‘photographers’.

MdM, in conjunction with the community in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, with the support of the European Commission Humanitarian Aid & Civil Protection department (ECHO) and in cooperation with the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education, invited the children of Nablus to participate in a series of photography workshops to help them express their feelings and thoughts on what it is like to live in such a challenging environment. Using a camera as their ‘tool of expression’, the children took over 6000 pictures of places, people and objects that held significance in their daily life, or were part of a dearly held childhood memory.

The photography workshops are one of the innovative approaches implemented by MdM, as part of its psycho-social project in the Nablus governorate, to help the children express their feelings and experiences resulting from their harsh living conditions. In connection with World Mental Health Day, 10th October 2012, the opening of ‘Palestine through my eyes’ in Nablus will also be an occasion to inform the public on access to mental health services and mental health issues.

“I used to play in this park. It was the only place where I could have fun outside. But I can’t go there now because the settlers destroyed it. I even got attacked when I went there to take these photos. It will remain in my memory forever.”

Raed, 12 years-old,

Médecins du Monde Photography Workshop Participant

“We are not living like other children in the rest of the world. They have rights and we have rights as well. Palestinian children have goals too, but we can’t achieve them easily as other children in the world”.

Shatha, 13 years-old,

Médecins du Monde Photography Workshop Participant

The exhibition ‘Palestine through my eyes’ will run from Monday 15th October until Monday 22nd October 2012 (except Friday and Saturday), between 9.00 am and 3.00 pm.