Below is a letter from the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project (MRSCP) to the US El Salvador Sister City Network, asking them to follow the lead of their partner CRIPDES (Association for the Development of El Salvador) in supporting historic and ongoing Salvadoran-Palestinian solidarity and contributing to emergency humanitarian relief for the people of Gaza.

The US El Salvador Sister City Network’s annual fundraising appeal in March will include a letter supporting the work of MRSCP and directly appealing to fund MECA.

Dear Salvadoran Comrades and Friends,

Madison-Rafah Sister City Project (MRSCP) was founded in 2003 as a solidarity sister city aiming to build people-to-people relationships with the citizens of Rafah, a poor city and refugee camp on the southern border of Gaza, Palestine. MRSCP modeled itself after the US-El Salvador Sister Cities projects, and from the beginning has been supported and inspired by the Madison-Arcatao Sister City Project. 

For the past 21 years MRSCP has worked to raise public understanding of the situation in Rafah and throughout Palestine, to affect public policy, and to support grass-roots sustainable projects that help people improve their quality of live and remain on their own land, even while Gaza has suffered under siege, blockade and frequent military assaults.

But we have never seen anything like the present level of mass slaughter and physical destruction. Over two million human beings — including over a million children — are facing an unprecedented level of death, injury, disease, trauma and deliberate destruction of their ability to simply survive. Rafah is now overwhelmed with over a million refugees, trapped in the cold, wet winter under constant bombardment and denied all but the most inadequate trickle of life’s necessities. Hunger in particular has become so severe that the large majority of the population is now facing imminent threat of actual starvation and famine.

Even as we do all that we can to try to stop this US-funded atrocity, MRSCP is joining forces with our long-time partner the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) in an emergency campaign for Gaza.

Since 1988 MECA has worked to protect the rights and improve the lives of children in the Middle East through aid, empowerment and education. In the Middle East, MECA provides humanitarian aid, partners with community organizations to run projects for children, and supports income generation projects. In the US and internationally, MECA raises awareness about the lives of children in the region and encourages meaningful action.

We know and share the feelings of horror and helplessness that many feel as we watch this unthinkable tragedy assume genocidal proportions before our eyes. Besides taking whatever actions you can to try to stop this war, we invite you to donate here to support MECA as they operate on the ground in Gaza to save as many lives as possible.

In solidarity and gratitude,
MRSCP