Fundraising Event for Area Woman Traveling to Gaza in Support of Maia (Water) Project

Melissa Franklin will join a US delegation of artists in support of the Maia Project, which brings clean, safe drinking water. The Maia Mural Project will design and paint murals on water purification buildings in Gaza in July 2011.

   In support of Melissa's travels to Gaza, several KC groups are hosting a fundraising dinner event on Thursday, June 16, 2011 at 6:30 pm. The event will take place at Holy Land Cafe, 12275 W 87th Street Pkwy, Lenexa, Kansas. (87th and Monrovia, which is about 2 blocks west of Quivira; see map below).

   The fundraising event will include brief updates from local residents, who traveled to Palestine recently, including Ann Hayles. The cost for the dinner event is $25, which includes exquisite Middle Eastern food -- a choice of entrees, a salad, side dishes, and Baklava desert. Proceeds from the fundraising event will go to pay for Melissa's travel expenses.

   Members of Citizens for Justice in the Middle East, one of the fundraising event hosts, are proud to support Melissa in her ongoing efforts to support justice and rights for Palestinians.

   Melissa Franklin was president of the American Indian Studies club at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, worked at the Jim Thorpe Recreation Center on campus, and served as a mentor with an Upward Bound summer program at Haskell. Melissa traveled to Palestine in August 2009 with an Indigenous Youth Delegation, the first of its kind. Melissa is Comanche, Wichita, and Sac & Fox of Oklahoma.

Project Background

   The Maia Mural Project will develop a series of collaborative murals focusing on environmental justice, specifically water or ‘maia’ in Arabic.  The delegation will work with youth and artists in Gaza to paint murals at sites of water purification units that the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) is installing at UN Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) schools and kindergartens.

   The quality of water in Gaza has eroded, especially after the Israeli assault of 2008-9, creating a severe health hazard to which children are most vulnerable.  In addition the group will work on two large-scale public murals that will address the issues of the universal right to water and international solidarity.  You can read more about the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

   There is a growing water crisis in Palestine that affects agriculture, industry, and the health of virtually every adult and child. In the Gaza Strip, poor sanitation and over-extraction have polluted the limited water supply. In September 2009, the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) launched the Maia Project (Arabic for “water”)  to provide Palestinian children with clean, safe drinking water.

   This project began when the Student Parliament at the United Nations (UN) Boys’ School in Bureij Refugee Camp, Gaza were given the opportunity to choose one thing they most wanted for their school: They chose to have clean drinking water. MECA’s partner in Gaza heard about this vote and, after meeting with representatives from the school and the Student Parliament, came to MECA to see if we could respond to the children’s request for drinking water. MECA provided the funds to build a water purification and desalination unit for the school in 2007.

Map to Holy Land Cafe:

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