Established in 1991, the US-based Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) aims to identify and treat every child in the Middle East in need of specialized surgery not available to them locally. Featured on NBC’S “Making a Difference” segment, the PCRF has flown more than 800 Palestinian children, as well as dozens of Iraqi children to the US and Europe for needed specialized medical care.
The PCRF distributes free eyeglasses to poor children and since 1993, the organization has sent millions of dollars worth of donated wheelchairs, medical supplies and equipment to Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria. In 2007, the PCRF built the first and only pediatric surgery program in Makassed Hospital in East Jerusalem, where 191 children recovered following life-saving open-heart surgery; it also created the Palestinian Cleft Society — a comprehensive national group which provides surgical and rehabilitative care for children born with facial deformities. For more info, see: www.pcrf.net.
Its efforts have been recognized by several U.S. personalities, including former US President Jimmy Carter, former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Hollywood actor Richard Gere who said, “As we have all seen throughout this painful conflict, it is the children who are the most vulnerable, who suffer the most. Their very survival often depends on the work of the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund and organizations like it. Thank you for being there for them.”
