The Palestine Children's Relief Fund is a non-political, non-profit, tax-exempt United States organization founded in 1991 to address the urgent medical and humanitarian needs of Palestinian youth in the Middle East. The organization also helps suffering children from other Middle Eastern nations, based only on medical need.
The main objective of the Palestine Children's Relief Fund is to locate free medical care for children who cannot be adequately treated in the Middle East. The Palestine Children's Relief Fund is the main organization that regularly sends injured and sick Arab children to the U.S. and Europe for free care that is not available to them in their home countries. More than 450 children have been treated outside of the Middle East through the efforts of the Palestine Children's Relief Fund.
The Palestine Children's Relief Fund also helps to improve the quality of medical care in the Middle East by sending medical equipment and supplies to war-torn Lebanon and the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Palestine Children's Relief Fund has also trained Palestinian surgeons so they can treat patients there and has sent American medical personnel to the region to treat difficult cases and train medical personnel in country.
The Palestine Children's Relief Fund currently has several injured or sick children in the U.S. being treated for free. We are also working to locate free medical care for many more injured and sick children from Palestine, Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East. Palestine Children's Relief Fund relies on volunteers throughout the U.S. who act as host families and donors, enabling the continuation of their humanitarian relief work.
The Fund collaborates with Tatreez, the Needlework Project and its sponsor, the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center to trade in traditional handicrafts to support and promote the medical care projects. Tatreez, "needlework" in Arabic, is a Texas-based project founded by five female artists who purchase traditional embroidery and carved olive wood directly from Palestinian artists, women's cooperatives, and refugee organizations. The imported Palestinian art raises funds to promote cross-cultural exchange and understanding. Tatreez projects also help provide charitable support for these traditional craftsmen and women whose commerce has been stifled by the on-going Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Though the organization claims to be non-political, according to NGO Monitor:
- The organization is headed by Stephen Sosebee who speaks extensively at universities and other political "solidarity meetings" where he expounds on classic anti-Semitic, anti-Israel statements. During a lecture at the Zayed International Centre for Coordination and Follow-Up (ZCCF), Sosebee charged that a "Zionist lobby and Zionist influence" manipulated the U.S. government, its citizens and media.
- The PCRF received assistance from The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, Global Relief Foundation, and The International [Islamic] Relief Organization - all of which were closed down by the U.S. government for funding terrorist groups.
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Last updated: 06-02-2005 12:16:21
