2024 Support Gaza Kids Ramadan Campaign

Dear Friends,

Many great international relief organizations have raised campaigns since the war, but this appeal from Palestine Save the Children Foundation is different.  

Founded 20 years ago, this locally led and legally recognized Gazan organization is dedicated to resourcing community leaders to meet local needs and build more sustainable structures of support. Overseas aid is great, but long term, Gazans want to take back their lives. They want to demonstrate their own self-reliance. All they need is the resources to provide for their own wartorn families. 

Palestine Save the Children Foundation is one of the most trusted organizations in Gaza. It guarantees all funds will go to those who need it most because it is directly accountable to the local community who rely on it. Aid is not some bargaining chip for diplomacy, or for CNN news feeds. It is about saving lives!

Founded by Dr Ali Mansour, PSCF is already gathering resources on the ground to begin the arduous task of rebuilding homes, schools, hospitals, and lives. Unless the people see signs of hope from their own leaders, there is little reason to believe in any alternative to war. Now is not a time to wait. It is a time to act.  

Palestine Save the Children Foundation knows the challenges only too well. After the war of 2008, Dr. Ali saw that disabled children were being abandoned, and he built schools for them. Those schools are now in ruins but he is determined to start again. After the 2014 war, PSCF saw that young mothers could not care for their own physical needs, let alone care for their kids. So he organized to create health and sanitation kits. Such personal needs in a war zone become even more urgent. We are not about some grand vision. Mums need soap and babies need diapers.

The war is not over. Even a ceasefire does not magically solve anything. All it does is allow the massive task of recovery and rebuilding to begin. But Palestine Save the Children Foundation is not waiting. Speaking to an overseas TV network, Dr Ali said, 

"You can't play politics with human need. It is as urgent as the milk that starving baby needs to live, or the comfort an orphan craves to not have to spend another night alone. Telling us we have to wait till your elections is utter cruelty. We cannot wait because they cannot wait. "

Save Our Story, our local 501c3 charity consortium chaired by international peace educator Paul Costello  has partnered with local Gazan activist and film-maker Ahmed Mansour and his Gaza Ambassador movement to appeal to people of faith observing Lent and Ramadan, and to all people of hope everywhere, to please support local Gazans like Dr. Ali who refuse to give up, refuse to leave, and refuse to pretend that parachuting happy meals into Gaza is aid. 

The CAN-DO spirit that animates Save the Children Foundation Palestine is best expressed by tennis great Arthur Ashe, when he said

"Start where you are, 
Use what you have, 
Do what you can." 

So, like the Gazans, wherever you are, please start. Whatever you have to donate, donate. (It is tax deductible)  Whatever you can do, no matter how small, do.

Gaza does not need any more pity. Gaza needs our tools and our funds to resource itself to build again. With trustworthy local leaders like Dr Ali Mansour in Gaza, and the support team of Gazans in the USA led by his youngest son, Ahmed Mansour, and the international experience of Save Our Story Inc founder Paul Costello and his Congressionally recognized work for peace in Northern Ireland and the Middle East, we have a team you can trust.

Please send a signal to the people of Gaza that because you care about justice, because you care about children, because you care about your own humanity, you will send all the support you can.

Thank you in the name of Allah Kareem,

الله كريم

Ahmed Mansour Gaza Ambassador Team- Silver Spring MD 

Dr Ali Mansour Palestine Save the Children Foundation- Gaza City

Paul Costello Save Our Story Inc - Washington DC