MER-C has collected donations worth of $40,000 for aid flotilla to Gaza within a very limited amount of time. The group of volunteers held various activities for the benefit of the flotilla campaign including presentations and seminars, fundraising dinners, radio programs, ads in newspapers and magazines.

Nurfitri Taher, on behalf of MER-C, said that they are really excited about the flotilla campaign through which they will be able to go to Gaza for the follow-up work of the construction plans of the hospital they are going to build there. During their campaign of collecting donations for the flotilla, they received a lot of inquiries asking about the reasons for not renting the ships and whether they are afraid of the consequences of this campaign. Taher’s answer to such questions is that “no one wanted to rent their ship to a campaign to Gaza which will break the embargo, no insurance companies wanted to insure a ship being used for that purpose. We also tell them that we are not afraid and for us, just donating is not enough as we have a project that we have to accomplish in Bayt Lahiya, plus we want to tell as many people as we can, about the conditions of Gaza, through our own eyes”.

He went on to say “Right now we are too excited to be afraid. Excited because we will meet other Palestine fanatics, excited to place that first stone on the piece of land where the hospital will stand, excited to see our brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers of Gaza, who stay true and stay strong no matter what pain they go through, and we are far too excited to come back to our country and share the good news to our donors, that Indonesia Hospital will be under construction in no time at all.”

MER-C is a medical emergency rescue committee for the victims of war, conflict, and natural disaster. You can visit their website on http://www.mer-c.org .