Viva Palestina Malaysia (VPM), for the first time, had joined the Viva Palestina Land Convoy to Gaza. And this time, there are 12 Malaysian volunteers including TWO ladies participating in the convoy. 7 of them represented Aqsa Sharif, which is also a part of VPM. :)
The convoy members are:
1) Azra Banu
2) Siti Azura Nordin
3) Dato' Dr Musa Mohd Nordin
4) Dato' Adnan Mohd Tahir
5) Mohd Faisal Mohd Idrus
6) Abdul Wahab Yahya
7) Mohd Zin Kandar
8) Mohd Yusuf Ahmad
9) Norazmi Talib
10) Mohd Taupek bin Abdul Rahman
11) Azmi Katiman
12) Rofazlin Jusoh
The last 7 people are activists from Aqsa Sharif.
10 of the convoy heroes departed earlier, on 15th Sept 2010 on two different flights while the other two (Dato Dr Musa and Dato Adnan) joined the convoy on 5th Oct 2010, when the convoy is in Damascus, Syria. (I just got to know Damascus = Damsyik, heh..)
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| Azura and Azra. Our iron-ladies from Malaysia! Hats off to them! :) |
The close to 30-days journey started from London on the morning of 18th Sept 2010, and the convoy will be driving across Europe before entering Gazaz via Egypt.
For the convoy, each vehicle filled with aid cost RM55, 000 and Malaysians have generously contributed 6 vehicles with Federation of Islamic Medical Associations (FIMA) and IMAM sponsored one vehicle, another local pharmaceutical company sponsored another two, and Aqsa Sharif sponsored another three. Wow, Malaysians!
The convoy will be taking the route to Gaza through France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Egypt and God willing into Gaza, and today, 10th Oct 2010, they are scheduled to set foot on Gaza. But of course, as expected, the convoy faced challenges being delayed along the way.
Since Malaysia sent 6 trucks, our two iron-ladies are driving trucks all the way during the convoy! Imagine 20 hours of driving, a truck! My leg will have jellied I think. :p
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| Ms Azra focusing on the road. |
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| Ms Azura :) |
Of the volunteers from Malaysia, two of them have their own personal blog, which I honestly have to admit that I can't read regularly, can't seem to keep up with their posts. But, from what I've gathered, the convoy is now in Latakia, Syria, camping to wait till they are permited to enter Egypt and, with God will, enter Gaza (through Rafah, I think).
They were given very warm welcome from the Turkish in Istanbul, Kayseri and some other parts in Turkey I can't remember. Remember the bloody killings of the volunteers in Mavi Marmara? Most of the martyrs are Turkish? That possibly explains the warm welcome and appreciation gestures of the Turkish, apart from the fact that they too want to see a better future for the Palestinians.
However, there was one day, written in the volunteer's blog, that they were locked outside their camping site! Apparently they went off for campaigns, roadshows and when they got back, the camping site was locked! OMG... Could that be the one of the ways people use to make things more difficult for them? Or perhaps we should be thinking positively, "husnuzon" (not really sure of the spelling); perhaps someone accidentally locked the gates.
One of the excerpt from the blog,
During one of the speeches, George Galloway, founder of Viva Palestina, mentioned that we soon will be traveling using the same sea route Mavi Marmara used and when we reached the exact spot of the attack, we will throw flowers etc as a gesture of remembrance of the innocent and kindhearted humanitarian activists who were murdered there.
Hopefully, the tragedy that happened to the flotilla will not hit this convoy. Amin.
This convoy now is bringing 10 Million Dollars (i think it's USD) worth of medical aid and also an appeal to the Egyptian govt to let the convoy thru to deliver the humanitarian aid. There were approximately 160 trucks joining the convoy! We have trucks from Russia, Manchester, Liverpool, Algeria, Turkey, New Zealand, Jordan, Ireland and many other countries! This is an international convoy, led by activists and commoners. This should work, they should be able to enter Gaza. But then, why not yet? Even my youngest brother asked me, "Why then, can't they win? Why then, are the Zionists still prisoning the Palestinians? In front of everyone's eyes"
And to that, I have no answer. Maybe we haven't do enough. Maybe, God want to give the Palestinians the pleasure of defending their own homeland. Maybe, God still want to give us chance and opportunities to contribute to events like this. Or maybe, God is giving time for you and for me, to reflect upon ourselves, what have we done to help them so far? Have we been contributing financially to the convoy or, have we been contributing financially to the Zionists to kill the Palestinians? (Think McD, Loreal, Nestle and Coke)
I'm very happy while reading the updates by the volunteers, they really are maximising their effort. Dr Musa is helping in the clinic, with people coming for problems of heavy periods to UTIs to blood pressure taking to him. :)
He's very lucky to be able to contribute to this convoy. May Allah bless him and the rest of the convoy. :)
Since the massacre in Gaza 2 yrs ago, I started to imagine, visioning myself being one of the volunteers in a convoy like this. It'll be a dream come true for me. I have, since that time try to bring the matter up to my mother. What if, I volunteer to go to a third world country? What if, I volunteer to go to a country at war? Or what if.....I volunteer to go Gaza?
And my mum's replies were always, "We'll see when the time comes".
Hahah...
I can really sense that fear of losing her first child.
At one point, I even told my siblings that I do not wanna get married, I wanna dedicate my life to the people in need.
They then made a joke out of it, saying perhaps then I'll meet a nice volunteer there, and decided to get married. And then, both of us can dedicate our lives together. And then, perhaps we can die together being killed. Or so the joke went among us. And we laughed over the imaginations.
But my mum scowled at the joke. She emphasised that she did not go through difficulty raising her daughter to let her die at people's land, thousands of miles away from her.
:p
Anyway, let us do our part, the least, the easiest but most powerful, pray for their safety to and back to homeland, and may the aid successfully sent to the Gazans. Amin.
:)
All the pictures here in this post have been copied from various sources; VPM facebook and volunteers' blogs. Credits to them. :)
Volunteer's blog:
1) Azra Banu's - Azra to Gaza
2) Azura's - Azura for Gaza
3) Aqsa Sharif's - Aqsa to Gaza
Eyh, their name rhymes! :)
-AkMaR-
http://nur-akmar.blogspot.com
Sunday
11.58pm
Mood: Trying hard to think straight.
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