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A Word From Cycling4Gaza Organizers

When we started planning for the 2013 cycle last December, we decided that we wanted to support a project that has a big sustainability impact on the communities we support. Our search included a handful of charities that we have great respect for. However, the one project that stood out was PCRF’s #REACHGaza, Reaching Every Affected Child in Gaza. The project aims to identify every child in need of medical care in Gaza and provide them with the necessary medical assistance they require. This will be achieved through sponsored international missions and sending children for procedures abroad. The medical community in Gaza will benefit through the transfer of knowledge and techniques through the visiting missions, directly improving the overall healthcare in Gaza. Its ambitious vision of improving Gaza’s whole healthcare system spoke to us immediately.”. Following a few Skype calls with the head of PCRF, Steve Sosebee, we decided to commit the funds we raised in our 2013 cycling challenge to support PCRF’s Reach Gaza project. 

We are now a few days from heading to Hamburg and getting on our bicycles to cover 373 Km over three days all the way to the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. We are on the verge of having our biggest cycling year so far – growing from 32 cyclists in Turkey last year to 45 cyclists crossing Germany!
 
Over its five years, Cycling4Gaza has grown to be a truly international initiative: we have a network of supporters and cyclists that spreads all the way from New Zealand to Chile (Atlantic route!).
 
Thank you all for your continual support of our efforts and the efforts of our charity partners. It is your generosity and spirit that keeps us all going. Please visit C4G for further details about us, our charity partner and our projects.
 
These are exciting times and we are very proud to be supporting a charity with the impact and vision of the PCRF. I invite you all to support the #ReachGAZA project alongside the 45 cyclists that make up Cycling4Gaza’s 2013 challenge.
 
All my appreciation,
Mohammed Tahboub,
 
Cycling4Gaza 2013 Co-organizer

 

Our internal motivations dictate our actions, whether consciously or subconsciously. My involvement with Cycling4Gaza (C4G) is built purely on the feeling of “because I love it”. I completed my first C4G cycling challenge in 2011, fell in love with the entire concept, and 2 years later I am co-heading the initiative with Mohammed Tahboub; and the rest is history.

Three things about C4G trigger my passion: supporting vital health and education projects in Gaza, globally mobilising individuals for the cause, and physically challenging oneself. Each of these things play a different role: feeding the soul, stimulating the mind and breaking through self-imposed physical limits. The way I see it, C4G provides the perfect recipe to gear you up to help make a positive impact in world.

One of my favourite quotes is “I cannot do all the good that the world needs. But the world needs all the good that I can do.” That applies to each of us. In our attempt to do just this, we are bringing together 45 cyclists in Hamburg on the 19th of September for a 373 km 3 day cycle in support of the REACH Gaza project, in partnership with the PCRF. We are collectively raising over USD 230,000 (£150,000) for the project and we are more than half way there thanks to the efforts of our cyclists and unwavering supporters.

The REACH Gaza project aims to improve and strengthen the currently underdeveloped health-care system in Gaza, particularly when it comes to providing surgery for children in need of medical care.  The backdrop against which this project is working – as we can easily forget – is the 6 year long siege on the Gaza Strip that has resulted in a chronic shortage of medical equipment and supplies in Gaza and that prevents children and their families from travelling freely into the West Bank and abroad in order to receive the urgent care and treatment they need. REACH Gaza will address each of these issues and work towards creating a more durable and efficient healthcare system through improving the access and availability of healthcare to the population.

I am proud to be part of the C4G initiative and will do my best to share my passion, enthusiasm and energy with the people around me, in a combined effort to help make a small difference to the lives of children in Gaza.


Yours truly,
Zara Hannoun

Cycling4Gaza 2013 Co-organizer

A Word from Our Charity Partner


When we first heard that Cycling4Gaza was interested in partnering with the PCRF to support a humanitarian project to help kids in Gaza, we were excited and honored to be chosen as a partner.   The first reason is that C4G is one of the most respected and dedicated group of people serving the cause of children in Gaza.  We share their values and desire to reach the most marginalized and oppressed population in Gaza, and know that partnering with such an active and dedicated group would help enable us to save more lives of children there.  The second reason is that we are expanding with a new objective in Gaza - to identify and treat every child in need of medical care.  This cannot be done by a single grassroots NGO like the PCRF, but by working with hard-working and well-organized groups like C4G.  We feel that this partnership is perfect to expand our goal and ensure that every child in need of medical care gets the treatment and support that they need.  This is our goal and we are honored to have C4G as our partner.



Steve Sosebee
CEO & President
PCRF 
 

A Word from a Cyclist

Many years ago when I was a child, I (like many boys my age who grew up in the UK at that time) was a keen although not very competent scout. Scouts, for those of who you may not know is an organisation that uses a volunteer network of people (mostly adults) who give their time towards working with youngsters and is dedicated towards ‘making a real contribution to creating a better world’.

During those years it was not uncommon for me to spend many hours trying unsuccessfully to light fires in soggy woodlands and put up tents in the teeming rain of another glorious English summer. It was during these periods of unsuccessful orienteering that I would often wonder as to the purpose and reason of my being there and more importantly if it was safe to eat the charred burger that I had just ‘cooked’. Looking back now, I can understand and truly appreciate that the time and effort that was put into the local Scout organisation by those people who gave their time and energy to us has been invaluable to our becoming adults. The energy of these volunteers not only harnessed a wonderful group of friends for me (both then and now), but also gave me the realisation that having such guidance is an important part of a person’s life at any age and can go a long way towards helping to build better people.

Now, through my involvement with Cycling4Gaza and their association with PCRF I have the opportunity to also help children, although (and I apologise for the gross understatement) ones who are considerably less privileged than I was when I was their age. The assistance and input of PCRF - through their most recent initiative of identifying and treating every child in Gaza with the necessary medical care - can give these children something that cannot be valued highly enough, which is simply to save their lives.

Unfortunately I can’t do justice here to the work that both these organisations have done and continue to do, as well as the lengths that they go to in order make a difference to the lives of children in Gaza. What I can say however, is that I am truly honoured to be involved with both Cycling4Gaza and also PCRF and can only hope that my contribution can go some way towards supporting their initiatives. And for those who are joining me on this year’s ride I’ll leave you with this - if we get stuck in the German countryside with a puncture, I can confidently say that my fire-making and tent-building skills have come a long way since those disappointing days 25 years ago in the Sussex woodlands.  

Neil Turnbridge
2013 Cycling Challenge Cylist

A Word from Our Corporate Sponsor

Sho Cho Facilities Management, the owners of Dubai’s sho cho, Chez Sushi by sho cho, Flooka and Loca restaurants, is sponsoring the 2013 Cycling4Gaza charity campaign, as well as an individual cyclist, based in the UAE, Tarek Saidi.

Hiba Kosta, sho cho Facilities Management Partner said, “For sho cho Facilities Management, contribution to a human charity campaign which aims to improve the lives of those living within the Middle East, is both a passion and a priority. Our sponsorship of Cycling4Gaza, and of Dubai resident Tarek Saidi, will help the effort to bring educational and health support to vulnerable Palestinian communities.”

Cycling4Gaza is a non-profit initiative that aims to show solidarity with those suffering in Gaza, through the generation of awareness and donations. Tarek Saidi will be joining others, as they pedal from Hamburg to Berlin, in Germany, from the 18th - 21st of September.

Reem Ayyash
Sho Cho Facilities Management
Where You Come In

Support Cycling4Gaza and the PCRF in our combined efforts to transform the provision of healthcare for children in Gaza.

You can do this by:
  • Direct Support: Donate
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  • Hashtag: #Cycling4Gaza, #thePCRF, #REACHGaza, #C4G2013 on any information you feel is relevant 
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