The Rachel Corrie Rebuilding Campaign in Gaza:
Play means a lot right now
Dear Friends,
“We were surprised the soccer field is still there – so we checked it over carefully and then the children started coming back to play,” Adnan said in Rafah, Gaza along the wall with Egypt. He took my call, stepping out of a soccer game. “Most of the no-man’s-zone along the border has new mountains made from bombing but because we struggled so hard to be sure there would be no tunnels through our field, our soccer field is still here -- and it saved the row of homes nearby.”
“You
have to understand why thi
s is so important
right here,
right now. The kids are running,
playing soccer with friends and
neighbors, adults are even joining in. Yes,
there is destruction everywhere. A third of the
children returning to school have lost family
members. Homes
in
nearby Ybna Refugee Camp (and throughout Rafah and all Gaza) are
missing
doors,
windows are blown out, and many neighborhoods are entirely destroyed. But you have to understand that there is
also damage you cannot see, the damage that comes from the panic and
fear we all experienced.”
“The most important
thing is to provide an
immediate
response to the loss and damage that people have experienced. Our soccer field is bringing us together
here, now in a way that touches everyone, responds to everyone, builds
our
community and makes our connection with one another.
Start here.”
Adnan is one of the
founders of the Rachel Corrie
Sports
Initiative, formed by a group of friends in and near Ybna Camp who knew
and
cared about Rachel Corrie. This
soccer field in Rafah is only sand at the moment.
They want to put-in grass, lights so they can play at
night, a canteen with an awning where parents can watch the game, a
playground
for the little ones, and a small wall around the perimeter. They would
like shoes and uniforms to hold an
eight-team tournament soon, like the one they held so successfully
during
the holy month of Ramadan.
“We call it the Unity Club Soccer Field,” said Adnan. “Despite many different factions in our neighborhood, our field brings them all out to play together. It brings them together for the children.”
Throughout
this crisis, the Rebuilding Alliance has been holding our connection to
peacemakers in Gaza and peacemakers in Israel via bi-weekly
teleconferences. We are providing
emergency aid to families in an UNRWA shelter, and did our best to ask
Congressional staffers to help safeguard those shelters with calls of
concern. We seek to complete a home for
a physiotherapist from Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, as we
define our
next rebuilding projects and test the borders to get doors, windows,
glass, and
bags of cement into Gaza.
Right
now, we ask your help to fund the “Unity Club Soccer Field.”
We
know
that many of you, our donors and friends, face a financial situation
that is not the best at the moment,
but if every person on this list donates $5 they’ll install lighting,
$10 and they'll put-up the small fence, $25 and they’ll
convert an empty shipping container into a snack-bar canteen, with
restrooms. The Rebuilding Alliance’s
ongoing partnership with the
Gaza
Community Mental Health Programme makes this work possible, in
accordance with U.S. regulations. Please
donate now and help the Rachel Corrie
Sports Initiative keep hope alive for the children of Rafah.
In Rebuilding Peace,
Donna
Baranski-Walker
Executive Director
The Rebuilding Alliance
P.S. Some have asked, “Couldn’t they relocate the Unity Club Field to some safer place in Rafah?” Adnan points out there is no safe place in all of Gaza. The municipal playground was far from the Egyptian border but it was hit by Israeli missiles, so were the Rafah municipal offices, and so were neighborhoods throughout the interior of Gaza. Adnan explains that the Rachel Corrie Sports Initiative has put a lot of work into this field on the only land available to them. Three years ago, they cleared the rubble of demolished homes and spread wheelbarrows of sand to create the field. This land used to be Block L of the Ybna Refugee Camp run by UNRWA, where hundreds of families made their homes. When the Israeli Army bulldozed 187 homes in L-Block in 2003, those families crowed-in with their relatives making Ybna camp even more crowded with nowhere to go, nowhere to play. The Rachel Corrie Sports Initiative put a lot of work and a lot of heart into this field. Please,
