Viva Palestina - meeting for convoy

Viva Palestina Email Alert
20th February 2009

Scottish Medical Aid Convoy leaving for Gaza

Friday 20th February: Central mosque, Glasgow - 1.30pm

For interviews, media enquiries and photo opportunities of the medical aid convoy, please gather to the rear car park - encompassing the central mosque (main gates opp. Glasgow sheriff court).

Contacts: Akhtar Khan, PR & Media Enquiries: akhtar2khan@hotmail.com

Rizi Mohammed, Project Coordinator, Scottish Medical Aid to Gaza:

(+44) 07968 282560

The convoy will pass George Sq. and head down towards London . The Scottish aid convoy will be joined by volunteers and convoys from Lancashire and West Yorkshire . From London the convoy will continue on its' epic journey - of over 3000 miles across mainland Europe . The Scottish aid convoy is expected to link up with George Galloway's convoy "Viva Palestina" at the Rafah/Gaza crossing. The convoy is leaving under the banner of “Justice for Palestine”.

Akhtar Khan said “This task had originally started simply because of the fact that the Scottish people could not stand back and watch innocent women and children being massacred and suffer excruciating pain from severe injuries before and especially now in the aftermath of this recent war in Gaza. This Scottish humanitarian aid mission was orchestrated mainly from Glasgow, and very quickly it expanded far and wide. The aid convoy consists mainly of urgently needed medical supplies. The project started sometime before the recent onslaught in Gaza (on 27th Dec. 2008), but after the Israeli Blitz the humanitarian cause gathered unprecedented momentum.”

“Volunteers and professionals from a myriad of different backgrounds offered their time, skills and support. One evening recently, there were upto fifty volunteers sorting out, packaging/re-packaging the medical aid into boxes and loading them into the 7.5ton trucks. Leading heart surgeons and local pharmacists working alongside students and young people, sorting out medicines, is truly representative of the caring and hardworking nature of Scottish people.”

Rizi Mohammed, Scottish Medical Aid to Gaza Co-ordinator comments, “Bonnie Scotland shines brightly again as the brightest beacon of hope through this collective effort, on an international level, as a true caring nation. Although unprecedented, generosity of this magnitude could only have come from people who are blessed with a tender heart and from a caring, multi-cultural, multi-faith community. This vital, life-saving medical aid convoy will travel across Europe and the Middle East , with the journey taking around 14-18 days. We are truly indebted from the depths of our hearts, to the very decent caring people of Scotland .”