Techmed – Gaza’s Virtual Reality Tent

Product Description

United Kingdom

Supporters

The Gaza Virtual Reality (VR) Tent Project is a project Mosab Ali, in partnership with Sameer Project, is launching on the grounds of Refaat Alareer Camp in Zawayde through crowdfunding. Previously this initiative was running in a tent near Al Aqsa hospital but unfortunately the tent got burned down due to bombing in May and then again in the October fire that killed Shaban Abou Dalou. This is why the tent will be moved to Refaat Alareer camp.

This innovative initiative, conceived by electrical engineer, entrepreneur, and founder Mosab Emad Ali, aims to provide a nurturing and engaging environment for children traumatized by the ongoing war, as well as a stress-relief outlet for medical staff at Al-Aqsa Hospital. Mosab, inspired by trying to help his own child deal with his injuries and subsequent evacuation, understands the profound need for such a space firsthand.

Before the war, Mosab had a game development company, which had side projects helping children with special needs through the use of VR.

Having met hundreds of traumatized children while working at Al-Aqsa Hospital, he began thinking of ways to provide them with some relief. Armed with a VR set he managed to salvage, he realized how open children and even medical staff were to the experience and how much it changed in terms of their overall mental health. Thus, the Gaza VR Tent project was born.

The VR tent will feature immersive virtual reality games designed to transport the children into serene, enchanting worlds filled with animals and nature, encouraging them to communicate and express themselves in ways they haven’t been able to recently. This therapeutic approach not only offers a distraction from their grotesque realities but also aids in their emotional and psychological recovery. The progress of children will be monitored and handled by therapista and psychosocial councellers. The Techmed team will be getting trauma-informed training by experts online.

With this funding we will buy as many VR headsets and monitors as we can, develop customized games tailored to the specific needs of each child’s trauma (such as games designed to improve communication skills for children struggling to express themselves), and create welcoming packages filled with toys and sweets to help make the children more receptive to treatment. We hope to expand a larger treatment space and increase the number of doctors we work with. This technology will not only be used now during the ongoing aggressions and its resulting trauma, but VR therapy will be an important tool in Gaza’s recovery and healing, no matter the timeline.

Please consider supporting the Gaza VR Tent. Your generosity can light up lives and will make a difference in children’s lives as well as the overwhelmed medical staff.

This project is a collaboration between Techmed and the Sameer Project.

Salam,

The past month at TechMed has been busy as we start to scale up our efforts to meet the physical rehabilitation and psychological needs of those in Gaza. After 19 months of bombings, displacement, and loss, mental health support is one of the ongoing concerns. By using our Virtual Reality headsets and guided therapy we use this treatment modality to support both with mental and emotional healing as well as meet physical rehabilitation goals.

Thank you to our partners The Sameer Project for investing in crucial equipment for us including 4 new virtual reality headsets for $1,500 each and 2 laptops for $2,000 each. We paid via bank transfer with a lower commission for a total of $11,000. The vendor still has 6 more headsets left at the same price and we hope to raise $10,000 more so we can purchase the equipment in order to operate in the North as well.

We recently installed a large mental health support tent at The Sameer Project’s Refaat Alareer Camp. Here we held training sessions for new team members which cost 516 shekels to host and 150 shekels for team food, the two day training cost $250. We cover transportation for our therapists, nurses, and support staff to the hospitals and encampments to work with patients, totaling around 200 shekels or $75 per day when they are out on the field. Additional costs of toys for play therapy, coloring books, food and supplements for the partient came to 2,292 shekels in cash this month, with 35% commission totaling $861.

The team would also like to share some good news about one of our patients. Six year old Maryam was evacuated last week by the World Health Organization to the UAE for continued medical treatment that she desperately needs. Maryam has abdominal injuries, is covered in burns, and lost her parents and two brothers in the airstrike that targeted her home in Jabalia during Eid. We hope that we assisted during Maryam’s healing and we hope she continues on the path to recovery though her trauma and physical scars are so deep.

Please spread the word about TechMed to your family and friends. We need significant donations to keep going and we hope you can help us support these patients in need.

Fikret Koc

26 days ago

€20

Zarah Din

28 days ago

£40

Anonymous

29 days ago

$25

Sameena Bashir

29 days ago

£50

Riya Yuli

4 weeks ago

£15

Emiliano Alvarado

4 weeks ago

€50

Kennedy Reisner-Negard

4 weeks ago

$20

Anonymous

4 weeks ago

£5

Claire Evans

4 weeks ago

£10

roberta della pelle

5 weeks ago

£10

Laura Franke

5 weeks ago

£50

Anonymous

6 weeks ago

£100

Anonymous

6 weeks ago

£25

Valentina Serravalle

6 weeks ago

£25

Anonymous

6 weeks ago

£100

roberta della pelle

6 weeks ago

£5

Shenaaz Patel

7 weeks ago

£25

Rita Mégre

7 weeks ago

€10

Anonymous

7 weeks ago

£7

Anonymous

8 weeks ago

£25

Veda Williams

Hello, I’m Veda, also known as @tigersnacksyumyum on IG. If you haven’t reached out to Tech for Palestine, you should. You can reach Paul Biggar at: paul. biggar [at] gmail.com. This is VERY exciting.

7 months ago

Hala Sabbah