Press Office at Tuesday’s Child

Little Child’s Mid-Summer Prayer for an end to Seige of Gaza and Lasting Peace in Middle East

“For the wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard lie down with the goat...and a little child shall lead them” Is 11.6

Date:        Sunday 21st June 2009

The Belfast-based humanitarian children’s charity, Tuesday’s Child, is calling people to join with them in prayer on Midsummer’s day for an end to the bitter siege of Gaza and for peace in the Middle East.

Tuesday’s Child, inspired in May 2006, by a visit to Medugorje, has been feeding some of the many starving children of Gaza since November 2007, in partnership with the Daughters of Charity.

As the summer heat beats down, the humanitarian crisis across this small strip of land escalates. Thousands of people are homeless and are living without shelter, adequate food, water or sanitation, with children and the elderly suffering the most. Incidences of dehydration and diarrhoea are spiralling. Internal food prices are increasing as the blockade continues, bleeding the suffering more.

Many are bereaved, many have lost limbs, many have lost their sight, others their hearing and all are suffering from shock, especially the children. Others have open wounds which refuse to heal because they are so malnourished. Raw sewage piles up daily, adding to the sickness, and hospitals simply cannot cope. No human being should have to live like this!

As if the horror of white phosphorus burns was not enough, recently high levels of radioactive uranium have been reported and there are now concerns about radiation sickness and potential birth defects.

Large aid convoys are subjected to ever-changing embargos. Today, 5 months after the recent war, access for much needed building materials and equipment is refused.

The tragedy is that the world media has moved on and people are living in the rubble of their former lives, in utter despair and sheer bewilderment at the inability of the world to bring an end to their plight.

“We hope that people going to mass this Sunday will join in our special prayer, remember the plight of the people in Gaza and pray for an end to the siege. We also ask that people pray the luminous mysteries of the Rosary with us on Sunday for an end to the human misery in Gaza and for peace in the Middle East. We invite all Christian denominations to join us in whichever prayer best suits their own tradition. We also hope that people from non-Christian faiths pray with us for peace and justice in the Middle East. We also invite leaders from the Jewish and Muslim faiths here to encourage their flocks to lift their voices in a joint prayer for peace. Ultimately, peace requires a universal prayer of all faiths“, said Tuesday’s Child.

A book for posting individual prayers and aspirations is also available on the Tuesday’s Child website for those who wish to leave a personal message.

The Tuesday’s Child representative explained, “We have chosen MidsummerÕs day, for it is then that God shines His light on the world longer than any other day. We pray that His divine light will shine into the hearts and minds of those capable of lifting the siege of Gaza and permit proper access for humanitarian organisations to bring relief to people there. We also pray for a lasting peace solution in which people of Palestine and Israel can live together in mutual understanding and tolerance. The future of our children depends on it“.

This is a day of peace not protest.

For further details please contact Orla Sheehan on 07813 834045 or email orla.sheehan@btinternet.com or the charity email info@tuesdayschild.org.uk

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