Gaza emergency fund boosted by University of Leicester students and staff
Students and staff from the University of Leicester have raised more than £20,000 for a charity providing medical and humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza.
A series of fundraisers has been coordinated by MedRACE a student/staff inclusive learning group at Leicester Medical School, and the MMF, a student academic society, in response to the emergency in Gaza.
All money raised has been donated to the Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) emergency appeal, which funds medical and humanitarian aid in Gaza, where the health system has all but collapsed.
The fundraisers have included a 48-hour fast by Aleks Palanac, who leads the University’s Sanctuary Seekers’ Unit, a charity auction and bake sales.
Clinical Associate Professor at the University, Shameq Sayeed, is a staff co-chair of MedRACE and is well-placed to explain how desperate the situation in Gaza is, having visited numerous times with colleagues from Oxford to support undergraduate and postgraduate medical education.
He said: “I’ve been travelling to Gaza since 2013 where health under occupation has always been challenging, but catastrophically more so over the last nine months, with the majority of the population displaced, and hospitals and healthcare infrastructure destroyed or only partly functional. Like others, the University is rightly calling for an immediate ceasefire, and we hope the money we are raising can make a small contribution to the healthcare of our Palestinian friends and colleagues.”
Kiran Bhavra, a MedRACE Co-Chair in 2023-24, said: “The support we have received has exceeded our expectations. The amount of baked goods donated and volunteers who helped us has been truly amazing. We were so happy to have reached our initial target of £10,000, and then smash it by raising more than £20,000 but it doesn't stop there. We want to continue to surpass this and raise vital funds for this very important cause.”
You can donate to MedRACE’s fundraiser via the Just Giving website.