MECA is committed to protecting and advocating for the rights of all people, especially children. Our work is rooted in a deep sense of justice and we have a commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international and humanitarian law.
Since 1988 MECA has brought over $8 million of much needed relief to besieged communities in Iraq and Palestine through emergency medical aid and direct aid to families and communities. MECA also supports children’s clinics and family mental health projects in various refugee camps thought the Occupied West Bank and Gaza, and supports community projects for children including, playgrounds, children’s libraries and youth centers. In line with our commitment to fighting for justice, MECA supports Palestinian and Israeli organizations and movements, fighting for political, social and economic equality for the Palestinian people as well as Iraqi and international movements and organizations working to secure justice for the Iraqi people.
A key component to poverty and crisis alleviation is public education about the political causes of humanitarian crises and public action on those issues. Our work in the United States is centered therefore on educating North Americans about US foreign policy in the Middle East, the affect it has on children, families and communities there, and the connection these policies have to our own communities. Through public lectures, audio-visual, presentations, teach-ins, demonstrations, and community work we dispel the myths and raise awareness about the history behind the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the current situation in the Occupied Palestine and Occupied Iraq and the role of US policy in maintaining and perpetuating instability and conflict in the Middle East.
We support the rights of all people to live with dignity, free from oppression, occupation, dispossession, apartheid, militarism and all forms of discrimination. We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people as they seek freedom from oppression and we support the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes. The work we do today is carried out with the simple but important understanding that children are indeed the future. For a better and stronger world its children and their families must be nurtured, supported and protected.