FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Barbara Lubin
Phone: 011- 510-548-0542
Cell Phone: 011-510-812-9416
Email: Barbara@mecaforpeace.org
URL: www.mecaforpeace.org

US Nonprofit Providing Safe, Clean Drinking Water to Gaza Schoolchildren

November 30, 2009: The Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) has launched The Maia Project to address one of the most harmful features of the Israeli Occupation: The systematic denial of safe, clean drinking water. Israeli’s twenty-two day assault this past winter destroyed or rendered unusable an estimated 800 of Gaza’s 2,000 wells, and caused $5.97 million in damage to Gaza’s water and wastewater treatment facilities. Since January 2009, the Gaza health ministry and the World Health Organization have issued drinking, seafood and swimming advisories.

“Since it was founded in 1948, Israel has appropriated water and water sources for Jewish citizens inside Israel and then for illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Palestinians are often unable to get materials, fuel, or permits to maintain and expand their water systems. At the same time, military attacks predictably—and often deliberately—destroy the water infrastructure,” says MECA Founder and Director Barbara Lubin who will soon visit the Gaza Strip for the third time this year. “The health and wellbeing of virtually every Palestinian child and adult is affected by Israeli water policies. In Gaza, where the water is contaminated with untreated sewage, agricultural chemicals, and high levels of nitrates, chloride, sodium and fluoride children suffer from parasitic infections, kidney and heart disease, damage to the nervous system, cancers, weakened bones and teeth and a life-threatening type of anemia.”
The idea for the Middle East Children’s Alliance Maia Project came from the students at the UN school in Bureij Refugee Camp, Gaza who were given the opportunity to vote for one thing they most wanted for their school: The schoolchildren voted for drinking water. MECA provided the funds to install water purification and desalinization units for this school and one other. These two units now provides drinking water for approximately 4,000 students and staff.
Since the Maia Poject was launched in September 2009, two more large units have been installed and two small units are underway with funds donated by individuals in the United States. MECA’s goal is to install at least sixteen additional water purification units in 2010, “But, ultimately,” says Ms. Lubin. “While we work toward a political solution to end this crisis, we want to make sure that every child in Gaza’s 264 UN schools can drink the water.”
Large units for elementary schools (between 1,400 and 2,100 students) cost $10,000, plus$1,200 USD per year for maintenance and repair. Smaller units for community centers with kindergartens and nurseries cost $3,500, plus $1,000 per year for maintenance and repair. Despite the severe travel and import restrictions Israel imposes on the Gaza population, all materials and expertise are available inside the Gaza Strip.

The Middle East Children’s Alliance is seeking funds from individuals and organizations throughout the international community who are committed to making a significant impact on the health and wellbeing of Gaza children by providing them with safe, clean drinking water.

About Barbara Lubin and the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA)*

Founded in 1988 by Barbara Lubin and Howard Levine, the Middle East Children’s Alliance is a Berkeley-based non-profit humanitarian aid organization that has delivered more than $17 million in food, medicine and medical supplies to children in the West Bank and Gaza, Iraq and Lebanon. MECA provides financial assistance for community projects in the West Bank and Gaza such as sports teams, arts programs, English classes, computer technology, media training, playgrounds and psychosocial support. Barbara Lubin is a long-time anti-war, children’s rights, and disability rights advocate. She was president of the Berkeley School Board from 1984-85. She has four grown children and seven grandchildren.