Medicins Sans Frontieres

The structures pictured here are inflatable surgical tents on the ground in Gaza, put in place and operated by Medicine Sans Frontieres. The tents can be erected in 48 hours and provide a sanitary professional facility for the most complex surgical procedures.
You can read about them at the Medicin Sans Frontieres web site.

MSF is the one organization I trust to be on the ground and get the job done efficiently with out a lot of wasteful bureaucracy and frills. They are committed doctors and technicians who have a proven record of being able to respond to an emergency and the ability to operate in the midst of the worst type of conditions.

MSF is on the ground in Gaza providing emergency medical relief and food and related services now and needs your donations. I have a number of friends who have worked as techs for MSF in Mali, Cambodia and Rwanda and can attest through personal experience as to the honesty and efficiency of the organization. When the tsunami hit South eastern Asian, they were there and when they realized that they had more money than they needed for their operations, they asked the public not to donate specifically for tsunami relief.
Here is a story from the MSF website:


The story of Bilal, January 27, Gaza City

Bilal, 14, is with his father. He is feeling better, about an hour after he was operated on by a surgical team in one of the inflatable MSF field hospital in Gaza City.

His story began on January 6. Bilal was staying home, north of Gaza City, when an Israeli bombardment hit the house. There was a big explosion and Bilal was severely injured. He had a large wound to his right foot and burns over his entire body.

Bilal was brought to Gaza City's Al Shifa hospital, where he was immediately operated upon. At the height of the Israeli military operations, hospital staff were overwhelmed with wounded patients so, in order to free space for other emergency cases, Bilal was sent to another hospital and then discharged.

As the days passed his foot continued to bleed and his wounds became infected. Bilal was referred to MSF's field hospital and underwent a wound debridement operation - the removal of dead or infected tissue from a wound. Although he required a blood transfusion after the operation, doctors say he will recover quickly.

However, almost one month on, Bilal is still suffering from shock, his father says.

"It is like Bilal is depressed," he said. "He has less motivation for life. His two brothers and his sister were also injured in the explosion. They are all scared by any sudden noise."

There are thousands of stories like Bilal. The number of injuries to children in Gaza is disproportionately high. Aid from most traditional sources and governments is just beginning to be talked about. MSF is on the ground now, they can do the job if they have the funds. If you care enough to want to donate to Gaza Relief, you could not do better Medicin Sans Frontieres.