Kiwi women 'Stride for Gaza' to support Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP)

[Picture: Immy with colleague Souad and daughter at their home in Jabaliya, Gaza Strip, 1999]

We - Marianne, Imogen (Immy) and Amanda - are three Kiwi women who found ourselves living and working in Gaza together 25 years ago. The experience shaped the rest of our lives. Last week marked the one year anniversary of the launch of a bombardment of unprecedented intensity, deadliness and cruelty by Israel against the civilians of Gaza, a strategy now extended to West Bank and Lebanon. We’re joining together here to ‘Stride for Gaza’ alongside many others to raise funds for UK charity Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP). [We've allowed ourselves a little longer than the official MAP timeframe due to NZ school holidays].

We each set a personal stretch goal achieve by the end of October. We’re asking you to sponsor us. Here's what we will do:

Amanda: will walk 50km & climb 4000m (1m for every 10 Gazans killed before numbers stopped being updated a while ago) over 2 wks.

Marianne: will run 50km/week for 2 wks.

Immy: will walk 50km (length + width of Gaza) by end October.

Funds pledged will be sent to MAP for their work in Gaza, West Bank and Lebanon. Hospitals and health workers in Gaza have been heavily targeted by the Israeli army. MAP continues to provide essential health services to those under attack and to speak out about what is happening.

More about the Stride for Gaza campaign at: https://www.map.org.uk/challenge-events/stride-for-gaza

More about MAP: https://www.map.org.uk