4 January 2016
The hard work of Medical Aid for Palestinians’ team in Gaza was recognised recently in the Guardian, who have featured MAP’s Director of Programmes in Gaza, Fikr Shalltoot, in their list of ‘NGO heroes of 2015’:
“I’d love to nominate Fikr because she led our Gaza team with incredible courage and humanity during MAP’s emergency aid response to the attacks on Gaza last year.” From Al Maghazi refugee camp and a nurse by training, Shalltoot’s team was one of the first medical organisations to respond to the 2014 Gaza crisis, providing more medical supplies to hospitals than any other NGO. “In the face of eight years of blockades and closures of Gaza and the stalled reconstruction, Fikr has continued to show inspirational leadership and has been a powerful voice for Palestinians in Gaza.”
As well as leading MAP’s response to the crisis on the ground , during the 2014 attacks Fikr helped get the word to international media about the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, speaking to the Guardian and others about what the team were witnessing. Recently, delegates at the Medact ‘Health Through Peace’ conference in London heard Fikr speak via Skype about attacks on hospitals and medical personnel in 2014, and the struggle to rebuild medical infrastructure in the face of the suffocating blockade and closure of the territory.
Our supporters will also have seen their work featured in the poster accompanying the Winter edition of ‘Witness’, our biannual magazine, which highlighted MAP’s achievements in a year of responding to ongoing humanitarian need in Gaza following the conflict:
We would like to thank the Gaza team, and all of our field staff across Palestine and Lebanon, for their vital work throughout 2015. Thanks to the support of people like you, MAP is set to reach even more people through our projects – including new initiatives in support for women with cancer in the West Bank, and a mobile eye clinic in the Jordan valley – in 2016.
If you would like to donate to MAP’s projects in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, you can do so by clicking this link.
Featured image: MAP Director of Programmes in Gaza, Fikr Shalltoot
