Many of you reading this will know that Qayis El-Farra passed away last last year from cancer.
Qayis is much missed by us all but especially by his mother Wesam, his father Musheir, chair of Sheffield PSC, and his brother Qasem.
Qayis was a young Palestinian, born and raised in Sheffield, committed to justice for Palestinian people and a strong supporter of the small park BIG RUN.
In his memory the recently completed Khuza’a Healing Centre, which was funded, in part, with your help at small park BIG RUN, was renamed by the people of Gaza as the Qayis Healing Centre.
Once the centre was built our goal last year was to raise funds to run it, staffed by two professional child psychologists. The appeal for support for this project went out widely and MECA ( Middle East Children’s Alliance, an international charity) welcomed our initiative so much that they moved from an initial offer to match fund money we raised to proposing that they take on the costs on a long term basis!
A new mobile service
This has enabled us to explore other forms of psychological support for children which we had never thought possible.
Dr Osama Freyna, a leading clinical psychologist in Gaza, who appeared on the small park BIG RUN Zoom which closed the event last year, encouraged us to embark on an innovative project to offer children across the Gaza strip a mobile psychological healing service. Its great strength is that it takes the support to where it is needed.
It will involve the purchase and adaptation of a bus, providing a mobile unit for consultation and small group therapy. We will need to fund essential costs and the community mental health workers to make this possible. Dr Osama has agreed to supervise their work and act as professional adviser to us without charge.
With your help, we can make this a reality. We have funds for the bus already – but we require help securing funds to cover other costs which include:
- Two community health workers – £5,550.
- Bus driver – £2,750.
- Bus maintenance – £300.
(Please note a previous page about the Healing centre can be found here)