Linda Badran brought a child from Gaza to St. Louis for healing. Now she doesn’t know if she’s alive
"We're feeling the gravity of what it's going to take not just to rebuild Gaza, but to make the survivors whole again." | www.stlpr.org
Ulaa Kuziez
12/15/2023
Hosting Palestinian children who came to St. Louis for serious medical treatment changed Linda Badran’s life.
The children – Hadil from the Gaza Strip and Bara’a from the West Bank – came through Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, a nonprofit organization that brings injured and ill Palestinian children to the U.S. for free medical care.
“When Hadil walked into our home, my family was forever transformed,” Badran told St. Louis on the Air. “Hosting these children did so much more for me and my family and my community. Our community came together in an amazing way.”
In November, Badran co-founded a St. Louis chapter of PCRF. She said the urgency of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza compelled her to look for new ways to help. Nearly half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are children, with 40% of those killed or injured being children.
“We're feeling the gravity of what it's going to take not just to rebuild Gaza, but to make the survivors whole again. And I think that PCRF is in a unique position to do that,” Badran said. “There was no question that we needed to step up and do this.”
