Medical Aid for Palestinians has committed to raise £1 million over the next three years, to provide help in three key areas.

1) Train medical staff nationally to understand and treat burns

2) upgrade the existing burns unit in the northern Rafideyah hospital of the West Bank and Al-Shifa hospital in the Gaza Strip

3) build new satellite burns units in Hebron for the people living in the south of the West Bank, and Khan Younis for the people living in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

See a video about the need for MAP's Burns Project

Read more about the Burns Project

"First of all MAP is a way of expressing our friendship with the Palestinian people, so that people in Britain can support Palestine wherever they are. We are the bridge between the goodwill of the British public and the Palestinian people.

In 1987 the first Intifada was launched, and a lot of Palestinians were wounded. That was the time when MAP had to take a decision to work on a sustained basis and I became the first MAP volunteer in the Gaza Strip. Since then, we've always had personnel in Gaza and the West Bank.

A burn is one of the most painful and serious ordeals a person can experience. Palestinians are at great risk of burns and without immediate treatment they can face terrible pain and life long physical and psychological suffering.

We cannot leave the Palestinians to suffer alone"

Dr Swee Ang, MAP Patron and founding member

While the world's news crews and television cameras may have moved on, problems in Gaza and the West Bank remain. The ongoing Israeli occupation and siege means frequent power cuts and restricted access to fuel, so Palestinians are forced to rely on primitive, "make-do" equipment for cooking, heating and washing. Without the appliances and services we take for granted, Palestinians must perform basic everyday functions using gas cylinders, petrol and naked flames as fuel.

Cramped and inadequate living conditions can often lead to domestic fires. And because burns units are few, and military checkpoints on the roads make them hard to reach, accidents like burns can prove deadly.

In any instance of burns, the key to successful treatment is rapid access to a medical specialist and a dedicated burns unit.

"A burns victim does not have five hours"

But for a burns victim living in Hebron in the West Bank, for example, a 45-minute journey for medical attention can take up to five hours due to the number of checkpoints that must be crossed before reaching the Rafideyah burns unit in Nablus in the north.

Once they've reached the unit, overcrowding and a lack of staff mean burns victims often face a further wait. It means their injuries have time to intensify and in some cases become life-threatening.

Even if a patient reaches a hospital in time, there is no guarantee that a burns specialist - or any medical professional with knowledge of how to properly treat burns - will be on hand to provide the right treatment.

"They gave us nothing but painkillers"

According to a father whose children were badly burnt in a domestic fire,

"They only helped clean the children, and prescribe painkillers."

Right now, the reality of life for burns victims in the occupied Palestinian territory is terrible scarring, disfigurement - and loss of life.

When a gas canister exploded at their house in a village just outside Hebron, the Farhan family became trapped in a fire that caused terrible injuries to Mr Farhan and four of his children. What should have been an evening of homework and a chance for the family to convene around the dinner table instead became one of tragedy.

The emergency services took so long to arrive that neighbours rushed the family to hospital in their own vehicles. But in Hebron, the hospital was not equipped to deal with burns injuries, and Mr Farhan's youngest daughter, Haneen, died before she could be transferred.

She was three years old.

"Her wounds were not life-threatening. She died due to lackof a burns unit"

There was no time to grieve. With three other seriously ill children all suffering from burns, Mr and Mrs Farhan were desperate to find proper treatment - but it proved impossible.

"My nine-year-old daughter lost two fingers and has burns over 70% of her body"

As Mrs Farhan explains, the inadequate level of care available at Hebron has scarred her surviving daughter both inside and out:

"They were not able to treat us in Hebron.They bound my daughter's burnt hand without separating the fingers. This meant that she lost two fingers. I believe that they cut them because it was easier than giving long-term treatment. They did not have the ability to offer long-term care. She is just nine years old and now she is ashamed to go to school."

The result of poor housing conditions is that fires like this are not rare. And a lack of awareness, equipment and trained medical staff only compound the burn injuries like those suffered by the Farhan family.

Unfortunately, theirs is only one story: tragedies like this are happening all over Gaza and the West Bank.

Even if some burns victims are "lucky" enough to eventually get what they need to treat their physical ailments, the problems don't end there. Poor housing, faulty gas and electricity mean burns injuries are common

The surviving Farhan children have been left with permanent deformities and psychological damage.

Apart from forfeiting their education because they are too ashamed and too scared to return to school, the children have become reclusive too.

"They don't play with other kids often. They usually stay at home or sit in some corner of the house. Their spirits have been destroyed."

There is a desperate shortage of burns facilities in Gaza and the West Bank, and even the existing unit at Rafideyah hospital in the northern town of Nablus suffers from a lack of staff, training and equipment.

But despite all this, there is hope.

"We can save lives and prevent deformity and scarring but we need the resources to do so"

According to Dr Anas, currently the only surgeon in the West Bank to specialise in burns treatment:

"We need equipment but more importantly we need teams. We need trained staff.

With a burn injury, there are simple treatments that can be offered at the earliest stage in the ambulance. If the emergency staff do not know how to provide this simple care then the patient may well die."

It's for these reasons that Medical Aid for Palestinians has committed to raise £1 million over the next three years, to provide help in three key areas.

We need your help

If you agree that the people of Palestine must be allowed access to proper healthcare, click on www.map.org.uk/burns to see how you can get involved and help us reach our £1 million fundraising target.

Show solidarity with the people of Palestine and help ease their suffering.

Thank You!