Today it's my birthday - Please celebrate with me by supporting children without hope and justice.

Please click here to go to my Just Giving Page.

It is Wednesday 13th April 2016 and it is my birthday!  Yay!  I turn 44 today.  I am such a fortunate person.  I am in good health, own a home, am married and have two beautiful teenage daughters.
I am having a wonderful career and I really do not have anything to complain about.  Thank God!

In the midst of my thoughts though, are my experiences visiting street children in South Africa and meeting Palestinian families in the West Bank that live under oppression, have their houses knocked down and loved ones locked up in prisons for the young and old.

I don't live with any of these pressures but my heart goes out to them and for one year only, I want to dedicate my birthday to them with the aim to at very least raise some kind of awareness about their plight.

In July I am jumping out of a plane to raise money for grassroots charities in those areas that seek to bring hope and justice to displaced children and families via the Amos Trust.  I would like to raise £1000 if I can.

Please support me with a small donation to my cause, I will love you forever and after all , it is my birthday :-) - Please click here to support me.

Thank you.

John

The Children Of Hebron

In recent years I have found that I have been increasingly more concerned personally and professionally about the welfare of children.

In my trips to Durban and Palestine, this was particularly pertinent, hence the skydive in July this year.

I was inspired in Palestine to write some poetry as I found that it condensed my thoughts really well about what I was seeing.  As I share my blog posts you will see some of these pieces as they explain what I saw better than what I could write now.  I felt raw at the time and the poetry brings back that feeling for me.

In Hebron, West Bank,  I walked through the market area a long covered street through the middle of the town.  I say it was covered because when I looked up there was a net and on that net was a load of rubbish.

What was happening here was that in the apartments at the top of the buildings, Palestinian families had been evicted from their homes and were replaced by Israeli settlers.  The settlers seem to all be orthodox Zionist Jews who believe that this land is theirs.  I don't have a problem with their religion or beliefs, but I have a problem with the way that they treat the Palestinians.

Back to that netting.... The reason for the netting being there is so that the rubbish being thrown out of the windows of the now settler owned apartments, can be caught and not allowed to fall on the people below in the market.

If I throw rubbish at someone here in the UK, I am pretty sure that they wouldn't like it and might even get the Police involved.  In Hebron, this behaviour (and other strategies for trying to push out the Palestinians) is protected by the Israeli Defense Force.  It would seem that Palestinians have no rights.
For me, I am saddened that there are kids living in this mess.  All around them is conflict, hate, distrust.  What kind of life is that for a child?  Lots of the kids I came across where selling trinkets on the market to make money for their families.

Please share this blog if you like the poetry, not for my benefit but because I hope that it will help others to understand more about the issues facing Palestinians and this of course means their children too.

Your sponsorship will change children's lives for the better.