Many students in the West Bank and Gaza strip have a difficult time accessing higher education – because of barriers to funding or travel; so on Saturday Tampa will be the site of one of a series of 5K runs to raise money for scholarships. Yasmeen Yousef is a University of South Florida grad and is helping to organize the Tampa segment of “Run for Palestine” in South Tampa’s Gadsden Park at 11:00 a.m.
Listen:
“‘Run for Palestine’ is a 5K that’s going to be happening in 35 cities around the world. Tampa is on the map for that event. It’s this Saturday, August 13th at 11:00 a.m. in Gadsden Park.”
Gadsden Park is in South Tampa?
“Yes.”
You’re going to be raising funds. What will the funds be used for?
“The funds are going to be used for getting scholarships for the students in Palestine. The actions in Israel, like the colonialism that happens in Israel, is also colonizing the education in Palestine. So, it makes it extremely difficult for the people there to get a decent education.
“Public schools are poorly funded because of the occupation and parents are forced to pay the high price of private schools. And so, that basically leaves a lot of people unable to attain a higher education. The money that goes into this 5K, is going to help those striving students–honor students in Palestine–to go to college overseas.”
If someone is a runner and they’re interested in helping out and doing this Run for Palestine this weekend, how will they find out more information?
“They could look us up online and we also have a Facebook event going on. They can search up on Google: Reach for Education Palestine or Run for Palestine and it should pop up really quick.”
Those are my only questions. Is there anything else our listeners should know about this?
“I think they should know that education is something that really undermine, here in America. We don’t realize how much of a blessing and how easy it is to access education here. I think anyone who cares about education or understands and knows its value would want to come out to this event and really give that gift to somebody else.”
