Articles
December 2011, Page 65
Waging Peace
ANERA's Supporters Deliver
American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA), a leading provider of development, health, education and employment programs to Palestinian communities, held its annual dinner at the Renaissance Washington, DC Downtown Hotel on Sept. 30. Guests contributed more than $400,000 to help ANERA continue to deliver medicines, health care supplies, school books, educational materials and playground equipment to Palestinian camps and communities in the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon and Jordan. In FY 2011, the relief and development agency sponsored more than $60 million of programs.
Board chair Ambassador Edward (Skip) Gnehm and ANERA president Bill Corcoran welcomed guests to the event and described some of ANERA's new programs. One of them, a home gardening project has provided training, greenhouses, tools, seedlings, water tanks, fertilizers and irrigation systems to help 35 families living in remote and marginalized areas, especially widows or women who are heads of households.
ANERA's in-kind program delivers and distributes donations, including life-saving medicines, wheelchairs and other items gathered by other organizations. This year, among many of the gifts it delivered was a badly needed hydraulic bed for the intensive care unit run by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) in Gaza.
Laurie Kassman, ANERA's media relations officer, interviewed some of ANERA's heroes—their staff working in the field—who described the challenges they face. Hani Khleif supervises deliveries from ANERA's in-kind warehouse in the West Bank town of Beitin. Mostafa Al Ghosain manages the arrival and distribution of medical supplies in Gaza. Dima Zayat trains clinics and pharmacies in Lebanon on how to store and dispense supplies.
After watching films showcasing ANERA's work, , Dr. Alfred Khoury, ANERA board vice chair, noted the dire situation in occupied Palestine, "where in the last 40 years it's moved backward." When Israel occupied Gaza and other parts of the West Bank in 1967, Khoury said, "there was poverty but nothing like what we see today. There has been de-development of large segments of Palestinian society," he warned. "Education used to be our way forward but now educated Palestinians can't make a living..." He promised that "ANERA can and has the will to continue—with your support."
Dr. Vicken Kalbian, chair of ANERA's medical committee from 1980 until his retirement this year, explained why he and others are so committed to the more than 40-year-old organization: "ANERA hasn't wavered in its mission to improve lives in this volatile and politicized region. It's always focused...I say it loudly, ANERA is the best show in town."
To cap off the night, guests enjoyed another excellent show by comedian Palestinian-American Aron Kader, one of four members of the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour.
—Delinda C. Hanley
