Clothing Drive for Palestine 4/02/05
Dear NAAP-NY,
The Student Affairs Committee of NAAP-NY, in conjunction with the National
Arab-American Medical Association (NAAMA-NJ), has been organizing a month-long
Clothing Drive for Palestine.
We have reached out to Arab communities in both NY and NJ; local Churches,
Mosques and businesses. Students from NYU, Pace University, Rutgers-New
Brunswick, Binghampton University, Montclair State and Seton Hall have driven
the collection effort in their respective schools and have collected a
tremendous amount of clothing. This is the final week of the Clothing Drive for
Palestine and garages, dorm rooms and cars are full of bagged clothing just
waiting to be sorted and boxed for shipment.
The clothing will be shipped directly to two NGO's within the Occupied
Territories of Palestine. However, in order for the clothing to be accepted when
it reaches Palestine, it must be separated into boxes by gender and item,
labeled and also adhere to a number of strict regulations to avoid being
rejected at the borders. This sorting process is time-consuming and will likely
take two weeks to complete considering the large amount of clothing that has
thankfully been collected.
We are asking that NAAP-NY members and friends volunteer to help with the
sorting and boxing in order to expedite delivery of the clothing to those
Palestinians in need. We truly need as many helpful hands as possible.
A Kick-off Brunch will be held on Saturday April 2, 2005 beginning at 11am
hosted by Amjad and Jabeen AbuKwaik, members of NAAMA-NJ. This will be the first
day of sorting. Special thanks to Mr. and Mrs. AbuKwaik for providing their home
as a drop-off center for the clothing and for hosting the brunch.
Amjad and Jabeen AbuKwaik
Liberty Ridge Trail
Totowa, NJ
(973) 596-9449
If anyone would like to volunteer their time to this effort, please contact
Sawsan at NYstudentaffairs@naaponline.org