KUALA SELANGOR: Humanitarian Care Malaysia (MyCARE) is going all out to help Palestinians in the war-torn Gaza Strip, starting with collaboration with Econsave Cash and Carry to launch the ‘Medical4Gaza’ campaign at the Alam Jaya Econsave today.
The collaboration is aimed at raising RM3 million to aid some 7,000 injured Palestinians in need of medical care, with at least 2,400 who need immediate medical procedures in hospitals there.
Supported by the Health Ministry, MyCARE today signed an MOU with Econsave Cash and Carry and launched the nationwide donation campaign at its 73 branches, witnessed by the Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad himself.
Dr Dzulkefly in his speech praised the cooperation and hoped more corporate companies would follow suit.
“It is a good collaboration for a good cause. The government will continue its unwavering support for charitable and humanitarian causes such as this,” he said.
Econsave and MyCARE initiative goes way back since 2011 in which to date, Econsave has contributed a total RM6 million for various humanitarian efforts in disaster struck countries such as Nepal and Indonesia.
Last year, they collected a total of RM344,000 from the 73 supermarkets nationwide and the two years before that they collected RM2.6 million for MyCARE.
MyCARE Chief Executive Officer Kamarul Zaman Shaharul Anwar said medical aid and specialists doctors have become the highest priority in humanitarian aid demand especially in Palestine.
“MyCARE was able to enter Gaza last year and met Gaza’s Deputy Health Minister Dr Yusof Aburrish and has identified more than 6,000 patients waiting for immediate surgical treatment.
“Sadly, the hospitals are lack of latest technology of medical equipment and are in need of specialist doctors and checks showed that they only had the basic and outdated equipment to carry out surgeries. They are also running out of important medicines,” Kamarul Zaman said.
He also admitted that it was difficult for aid to reach the victims and called on the ministry to intervene through G2G efforts with Egypt.
“There was a shortage of medical supplies in Gaza and it was getting worse after countless attacks on The Great Return March but without the governments consent, passing through to get to the victims is a challenge,” he said, adding that MyCARE was planning to deploy a team of specialist doctors to Gaza in April, depending on the ministry’s approvals.
Meanwhile, Dr Dzulkefly said discussions had been initiated for approval from Egypt side and is still in progress.
He said if everything goes well and is approved, the ministry would allow for specialist doctors who wish to take part in the missions to go on a two-week unrecorded leave to provide their expertise in Gaza.
However, he said the request for the unrecorded leave for the mission must be done through MyCARE.
Also at the launch today, Econsave managing director Lai Sia Ling presented a mock cheque of RM1.2 million donations to MyCARE.