Compassionate Hearts: Helping innocent people in war zones

WHAT WE DO

Video:

Gaza War from the eyes of a Surgeon

Compassionate Hearts was founded by Dr. Ahmed Moghrabi. Our objective is to provide vital medical and humanitarian assistance inside and outside of Gaza. We hope to provide short to long term assistance to Palestinians in need from providing clean drinking water to life saving medical help.

Your donations small or large would form a necessary contribution to our ability to obtain the necessary aid from clean drinking water to medical supplies, including medicines.

In addition, we seek partnership with organisations wiling to support and/or fund our projects vital to establishing and maintaining crucial healthcare initiatives within the Gaza Strip, during and after the war.

The destruction of civilian and healthcare infrastructures have been beyond extensive. Specialists have said that we are looking at years where reconstruction of the Strip is concerned. The people of Gaza will require your help and ours throughout this period.

This is the conflict from Dr. Moghrabi's eyes.

Gaza-Israel conflict through the eyes of a surgeon

THE TEAM

Dr Ahmed Moghrabi

Founder

Dr Moghrabi served at Al Shifa hospital for 15 years before he became the head of the Plastic Reconstructive and Burns Surgery department at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younes in 2021. Dr Moghrabi studied Medicine in Ukraine and subsequently obtained two Masters degrees at Queen Mary University in London - one specialising in plastic and reconstructive microsurgery and the other in burns care. Forever improving on his abilities, Dr Moghrabi then went on to complete his fellowship in Plastic, Reconstructive and Microsurgery at the Ganga Hospital in India. This was how he became one of the most qualified and eminent surgeons in Gaza.

Dr Moghrabi continued to perform numerous lifesaving and life changing operations and procedures amidst intensifying challenges presented by the war that begun on 7 October 2023. This was on the back of having lost everything early on in the war, his home and private office destroyed during incessant bombings that plagued Gaza. Some of these procedures were considered impossible especially when medical supplies were scarce and hospitals lacked the functional basics such as electricity. Operations were often carried out in the dark with skeleton staff and with aid of mobile phone torches as a light source. However being the resolute and determined person who he is, Dr Moghrabi proceeded with some of these procedures despite the odds.

Delphine Noels

Delphine Noels studied painting at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Liège, then film directing at INSAS in Brussels. She currently teaches acting at the Brussels and Liège conservatories, and is a director at the IAD. She has directed several short films and documentaries. Her first feature film is Post Party.

Delphine Noels assists Dr Moghrabi in the creation of Compassionate Hearts, notably by setting up the administrative bases in Belgium.

Liz Loh-Taylor

Liz Loh-Taylor is an award winning humanitarian photographer and writer. She began her working life in Finance having attained a Bachelor in Business Management/International Trade and a Masters in Applied Finance. Her heart however steered her in a completely different direction. She has spent the past 15 years documenting stories of forgotten and marginalised communities and people around the world. Her work seeks to reveal deeper truths about complex social and political situations, aiming to give a voice to the voiceless, advocating for those in need through visual and written storytelling.

Liz contributes to Compassionate Hearts through communications, education & advocacy.

PROJECTS

1. Current Projects

(i) Medical Aid

Compassionate Hearts in collaboration with some hospitals in India and Egypt, will be providing medical aid outside of the Gaza Strip. These are cases that are too severe to be treated within Gaza as the healthcare infrastructure becomes more damaged and stressed each day.

Providing medical aid inside and outside of the Gaza Strip is an ongoing initiative by Compassionate Hearts, which we will provide updates for as and when the need arises.

(ii) Clean Drinking Water

There are over 2 million inhabitants in Gaza. They are living in extremely difficult conditions having been displaced by the war. Their struggles further exacerbated by the destruction of treatment plants as well as the blockade imposed by the ` forces, preventing access to food and clean drinking water. Destruction of land and infrastructure has also resulted in untreated sewerage infiltrating into ground water, further contaminating the water supply. People how have been displaced to the tents especially, has no access to suitable water sources at all.

We have established a weekly Water Distribution program, delivering safe and clean water to over 4,000 people in various parts of the Gaza Strip.

Please help us continue with our efforts to refill water tanks installed around different areas of the Strip, ensuring that vulnerable communities can have sustained access to clean water.

What your donations bring:

With as little as $12, you can provide lifesaving water enough to quench the thirst of 5 families for up to one week.

$48 will provide 5 families with clean water for one month.

$576 will provide 5 families with clean water for a whole year.

$140 will enable the installation of water tanks for 5 families.

(iii) Field Clinics in South of Gaza

“I was on my way to the hospital when I saw one of my former dermatologist colleagues in the street. He had lost everything and was selling bread to support his family.”

The idea for this project emanated from this encounter where Dr Moghrabi recognised not only the gap and need to provide health support in various medical sectors that have been overlooked due to the increase in trauma cases, but also that the dire situation in Gaza was resulting in job losses in these areas. This was to enable hospitals to cope with the continued surge in trauma patients and priority given to care for them. This project will not only fulfil a rising medical need, it will also reinstate important jobs.

The south of Gaza has experienced a population surge due to the ongoing conflict and resulting displacements. The town is primarily composed of displaced individuals and families, numbers now exceeding a million. The displaced population especially faces severe living conditions in overcrowded environments, including access to food, clean water and sanitary facilities, leading to high incidences of dermatological health issues, hepatitis and malnutrition in children, amid widespread environmental pollution.

The current healthcare infrastructure has been heavily damaged and the healthcare system significantly overwhelmed with the ever increasing number of victims from continued attacks by occupation forces. Despite its urgent need, the current system lacks the capacity to provide dermatological and paediatrics care, focusing instead on emergency surgical and orthopaedic services.

Working alongside and in consultation with Dr. Nasim Basala, a dermatology consultant at Nasser Hospital as well as Dr. Ghaleb Abu Khousa, Paediatrics Consultant, Compassionate Hearts of Palestine is working to implement these services in the South of Gaza. We will establish field clinics aimed at addressing urgent non-trauma health requirements. These clinics will offer:

Services of two dermatologists, one paediatrician and a minimum of three healthcare workers;

Essential medical supplies for diagnosing and treating the relevant diseases;

Medications; and

Educational programs on disease prevention and health management.

2. Pipeline Projects

(i) Skin Bank in Gaza

The need for highly specialized burn treatment services has always been felt in Gaza, but the war has increased it dramatically. More than ever, the medical system in Gaza is faced with the imperative of perfecting its techniques in the care of burn victims by acquiring the most advanced techniques developed in the world.

This year, Dr. Moghrabi will be studying at the Charleroi Hospital's Centre de Soin des Grands Brûlés in Belgium. In particular, he will be observing the functioning and management of the Center's ultra-modern skin bank. Until now, Gaza's hospitals had preferred to avoid setting up skin banks for ethical reasons. However, the war has made the creation of such a bank necessary.

Compassionate Hearts' aim is to set up the first skin bank in Gaza.

LOOKING FORWARD

As we progress as a foundation and as the situation in the Gaza Strip changes, Compassionate Hearts will continue to work with people on the ground to provide the necessary needs from a medical as well as humanitarian perspectives.

Your help is vital in our ability to continue to provide these needs to Palestinians in and outside of Gaza.

Thank you in advance for your kind and compassionate hearts.

CONTACT

For updates on the foundation and projects on the ground: Instagram

@dr.ahmed.moghrabi

Phone

+970 599 892 130

Email:

a[email redacted]