October Compassion Offering: Al-Ahli Gaza Hospital

Orchard Ridge UCC on October 1, 2025

During this terrifying time, Al-Ahli Gaza Hospital is one of the few remaining hospitals able to provide medical services to families in Gaza. The hospital is run by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, a UCC Mission Partner organization, and is staffed by both Palestinian and international professionals from around the world.  

Several times in the past two years, Al-Ahli Hospital was bombed and invaded by Israeli ground troops. Throughout these attacks and subsequent evacuations of the hospital grounds, Al-Ahli’s staff of 116 have shown heroic courage and determination, setting up tent clinics and mobile services in nearby towns and villages, and always returning to the hospital to provide ongoing medical care for the wounded.

Your donation to Al-Ahli Gaza Hospital will literally save lives and enhance healing, providing children and families with emergency and trauma care, treatment for burns (primarily children), physical therapy for wounds and loss of limbs, treatment for malnourished (starved) children, and more.

May Compassion Offering: Middle East Children’s Alliance

Orchard Ridge UCC on May 1, 2024

Showing Compassion for Children in Gaza

Our May Compassion Offering —  Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) — was identified and recommended by the ORUCC Palestine Justice Mission Team. After researching and considering many options, the Team unanimously approved sponsoring MECA as the Compassion Offering, in light of the current, urgent situation in Gaza.  MECA has staff on site in Gaza to respond immediately and directly upon receiving our support. 

MECA was founded in 1988 in Berkeley, California as a private, not-for-profit organization whose mission is to deliver vital supplies and humanitarian services to children in Gaza.  As MECA’s work has progressed over the years, its activities have included providing direct aid to refugee children in Lebanon and Iraq; water projects in Gaza that bring clean water for children and their families;  assistance to community organizations that help meet Palestinian children’s needs; scholarships for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank; and educational/cultural programs in the USA to increase understanding about the lives of children in the Middle East and the impact of US foreign policy on people in the region.

Compassion Offering funds raised in May will be directed entirely to MECA’s emergency appeal for the humanitarian needs of Gazan children and their families. Our donations will quickly provide food, water, healthcare and shelter for children in Gaza who are hungry, injured, orphaned and/or homeless.

MECA video:  https://youtu.be/dVVbRQIocKk