On Sunday 15 February, the Serémange-Erzange municipal theatre resonated with fraternity at the charity concert organised by the NGO Humanité Solidarité Médecine (HuSoMe). In a warm, festive atmosphere, several hundred people answered the call of Pr Raphaël Pitti to support the organisation’s orphanage in Gaza.
The evening, presented with dedication by Mohamed Boucharouit and Josiane Szura, opened with an inspired reading of the text Ibrahim, written by local humanist writer Marc Olénine and performed by actor Didier Benini to the music of an Ave Maria sung by muezzins and a great Lebanese singer for peace. This moment of reflection gave way to a rich, diverse musical programme: from the Balkan music of the group Troïka to a performance by Lebanese singer Lukas Abdul, ending with the Mediterranean sounds of the Moussafir orchestra and the singer Salima. Every note recalled the urgent need to act in the face of the distress of the Palestinian enclave’s 39,000 orphans.
The success of this mobilisation raised more than €10,000, a crucial sum for ensuring the continuity of care and shelter for the children in Gaza. Pr Pitti recalled that the organisation runs a villa there converted into an orphanage, where a Palestinian team of twenty professionals — carers, social workers, a psychiatrist and security guards — looks after some thirty children. Thanks to a tent set up as a study room, the children can continue their schooling despite the chaos. This convivial occasion, made possible by the municipality of Serémange-Erzange, which kindly provided the venue free of charge, underlines HuSoMe’s strictly humanitarian mission. As international resources dwindle, this event proves that the generosity of civil society remains the last line of defence for protecting these children, in Gaza as on our other fronts in Ukraine and Syria.
