Patch Adams "My next trip: can I count on you?"

From the Desk of Dr. Patch Adams, via CODEPINK, May 19, 2009

As a "doctor/clown," I have traveled the world over to bring the healing power of laughter to children and adults in virtually every corner of the world -- from Afghanistan, to Bosnia, to Haiti. Right now, there is a group of children who are really in need of healing -- the children of the Gaza Strip. Please help me bring some healing and laughter -- as well as playgrounds, sports equipment and medicines -- to the shattered young lives of this war-torn region.

The 1.5 million people of the Gaza Strip (more than half of them children) have had their homes destroyed, their playgrounds crushed and their schools gutted in the recent Israeli attack on this small, crowded corner of the world. Their borders -- both on the Israeli and Egyptian sides --are closed, making it impossible to rebuild.

For the first time ever, we'll be part of a coordinated effort to push open the borders by land and by sea! On June 5, I will join CODEPINK: Women for Peace, the Coalition of Women for Peace (Israel) and more than 100 American and Israeli peace activists -- Jews, Muslims, Christians and everything in between. We will set up an encampment on the Israeli border calling for a lifting of the siege. We will be joined by over 150 people trying to enter Gaza through Egypt and others coming by sea.

We will bring materials to build playgrounds, sports equipment, children's medicines -- and performances that will get the children to forget their dire circumstances for a little while and laugh.

But we need your help. We need your donations to sustain a presence at both borders to put pressure on the Israeli and Egyptian governments. And we need money to purchase the playground materials, sports equipment and medicines.

Please donate today. While President Obama and the Middle East leaders talk endlessly about talks, we can actually DO SOMETHING to lift the siege and flood Gaza with love and laughter.

Let's show them that the power of laughter can't be extinguished!
Patch Adams

PS: Join CODEPINK and Global Exchange Reality Tours on our upcoming "Peace, Gender, and the Environment" delegation to Ecuador. Tuesday, July 7th 2009