© 2025 WNIJ and WNIU
Northern Public Radio
801 N 1st St.
DeKalb, IL 60115
815-753-9000
Northern Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Rockford resident raises funds for Palestinian children injured in Israeli bombing

Lisa Lee
Eight-year-old Baraa finishes reciting poem by renowned Palestinian poet ReFaat Alareer titled "If I must die" during bazaar fundraiser for Heal Palestine.

Leer en español

Rockford resident Farzeen Harunani has been pretty busy this holiday season. Recently, she helped organize a bazaar in Addison with the American Civic and Humanitarian Coalition.

Proceeds raised from donated entrance fees went to the nonprofit - Heal Palestine.

The nonprofit organization helps children injured by Israel’s bombing in Gaza receive medical care.

“These children have not had a future for so long,” she said. “And now they've gone from just having no future in a large open-air prison to not knowing if they'll be alive when they wake up in the morning,” Harunani said.

Eight-year-old Baraa is a recipient of the program. He arrived in Chicago in July to receive medical attention for his amputated right foot, the result of Israeli bombing that struck his home in Rafah. His arms were also injured in the bombing. He arrived with his mother and sister. His father and grandmother were killed in the attack.

The UN reports that Gaza has the highest number of child amputees per capita in the world.

At the event, the boy recited a poem by renowned poet Refaat Alareer, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike last December.

Over 44,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict, with some estimates over 100,000 when calculating death by starvation and lack of medical care. UN officials say Israel’s attack on Gaza amounts to genocide, which Israel disputes.

Earlier this month Amnesty International released its investigation of the conflict and concluded that "Israel has committed and is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip."

The coalition which hosted the event and other groups call for a ceasefire and an end to U.S. military aid to Israel.

A Chicago native, Maria earned a Master's Degree in Public Affairs Reporting from the University of Illinois Springfield . Maria is a 2022-2023 corps member for Report for America. RFA is a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. It is an initiative of The GroundTruth Project, a nonprofit journalism organization. Un residente nativo de Chicago, Maria se graduó de University of Illinois Springfield con una licenciatura superior en periodismo de gobierno.