Palestinian girl gets new eye

[Scurrilous]

MEDICAL RELIEF ORGANIZATION HELPS CHILDREN OF MIDDLE EAST

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"The Palestinian girl clutched her stuffed animal and managed to be brave. Her mother murmured prayers in Arabic, weeping as she softly rocked little Isra'a back and forth in her arms.

Isra'a El Batsh, just 3 1/2 years old, lost her right eye in March when an Israeli helicopter fired a missile into her densely populated Gaza neighborhood. Her eye is a sunken hole, and shrapnel wounds still cover her face.

But on Friday, San Jose ocularist Raymond Rendon fitted Isra'a with a prosthetic eye. They had been brought together by the non-profit Palestine Children's Relief Fund, or PCRF, which keeps an extensive database of children from the Palestinian territories and elsewhere in the Middle East who desperately need specialized medical treatment."

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"The relief fund works to match Palestinian children with physicians in the United States and Europe who provide the surgery free of charge. Ideally, doctors fly to the West Bank or Gaza, where they use their skills to treat dozens of children per visit. But often the children go abroad and stay with host families, many of whom speak Arabic and who translate and offer emotional support."

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/health/14903793.htm