A street collection held in the Isle of Man last weekend for the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal for Gaza has raised over ?4,600.
The money, collected by volunteers in Douglas, Ramsey, Peel, Castletown and Port Erin, has gone directly to the DEC to be distributed to aid agencies working to provide humanitarian support to the hundreds of thousands of people caught up in the conflict zone.
The local appeal was boosted by donations from a talk at the Sayle Gallery by Phil Craine, who visited the West Bank as a UN Humanitarian Observer earlier this year, and a collection at St Andrew’s United Reformed Church.
Reports from Gaza show a population in crisis. As well as a lack of clean water, food and medical supplies, the main power station for the area is inoperable and hospitals are struggling to cope. The BBC estimates more than 2,100 have been killed in the current conflict, the majority of them Palestinian civilians including more the 450 children. According to the DEC a further 10,000 people have been injured in Gaza, nearly a third of them children.
The collection on the Island was co-ordinated by the One World Centre. Donations may still be made either via the DEC collecting tins at local Manx Co-op stores or direct through the DEC website at www.dec.org.uk.
