AFOPA has been committed in utilising every donation from its supporters to fund projects located directly in the Occupied Territories of Palestine, run public awareness events in Australia, and to donate to domestic & worldwide campaigns/organisations promoting an end to the Israeli Occupation of Palestinian territories. For all past projects undertaken by AFOPA please click here.
Current Projects
1. Shaher Mashni El-Awda Travel Grant
The Shaher Mashni El-Awda Travel Grant is provided to selected individuals who are planning to volunteer some form or program of assistance to an organisation in Palestine. The Grant is intended to supplement the financial outlay involved in such a venture.
The Grant is offered and administered by AFOPA in memory of one its members, Shaher Mashin (Abu Nasser), 1926-2007, who contributed greatly to the Palestinian cause in Australia. Abu Nasser, who became a refugee in 1948, arrived Australia in 1959, penniless, with little English, and looking for a place to settle and raise a family. Despite the comfort and geographical distance his new country offered, Abu Nasser never forgot Palestine, and never lost faith in advocating for a better future for his people and his beloved country. Abu Nasser’s dream of taking his family to Palestine and to show them his beloved Deir Dibwan, never materialised. He died on the 1st of March 2007 of ill health. To honour his memory, AFOPA has established a travel grant bearing his name—the Shaher Mashni El-Awda (Return in Arabic) Travel Grant.
Recipient of 2010 Grant
Name and activities not disclosed.
2. The Palestinian Children’s' Relief Fund - PCRF Eyeglasses Project - $500 donation
The Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund ("the PCRF"), is a non-political, non-profit organization dedicated to fighting the medical and humanitarian crisis facing children in the Middle East.
PCRF Eyeglasses Project Overview
As part of an ongoing program to provide poor children in Palestine and Lebanon’s camps some form of relief, the PCRF has been providing children free prescription eyeglasses. Many children throughout the region are too poor for their families to adequately provide them such basic needs, and the PCRF is happy and fortunate to be able to support these kids through such aid and assistance. In May 2010 hundreds of children throughout the besieged Gaza Strip were provided eyeglasses through the PCRF. This is only one of many projects and programs that the PCRF runs to help alleviate the hardship that the people there are enduring as a result of the siege, occupation and poverty.
AFOPA's work with the PCRF
Two of AFOPA's members, husband and wife, Dr. Francis Nathan and Occupational Therapist Merlin Nathan from Adelaide Australia, have led several missions for the PCRF to Gaza, Nablus and Lebanon, treating well over 1000 poor Palestinians with cataracts and improving their sight, improving the mobility of those permanently disabled, and providing much needed medical and support equipment for the very basic facilities currently in place in the Occupied Territories of Palestine. Click here for a 2010 report of the work undertaken by Dr. Francis Nathan and here for a report on work in 2010 by Merlin Nathan. More information available on our Past Events/Projects page.
AFOPA is humbled by the fantastic work of Dr. Francis & Merlin Nathan, the PCRF, as well as all workers in the Occupied Territories of Palestine. In June 2010 AFOPA donated $500 to the PCRF Eyeglasses Project and is in the process of developing and planning projects with the PCRF, Dr. Francis and Merlin Nathan, and many other associations in Gaza and the West Bank.