On the 10th of November 2009 which coincided with the 5th death anniversary of President Arafat, PRCS won the Yasser Arafat 2009 Prize for Achievement awarded by the Yasser Arafat Foundation. The 2009 prize ceremony was held at Ramallah Cultural Palace and was attended by many Palestinian personalities including Mr. Salam Fayyad, Prime Minister, Mr. Al Tayyeb Abdel Rahim, Secretary General of the Palestinian Presidency, Dr. Nasser Al Qudwa, Chief of the Board of Directors of the Yasser Arafat Foundation, Dr. Nabil Kassis, Head of the Prize Committee, as well as by members of the PLO Executive Committee, the Palestinian Legislative Council, Palestinian ministers and Dr. Younis Al Khatib, PRCS President with a group of PRCS members.
Many Palestinian organizations and personalities competed for the prize. The Edward Sa’id Institute for Music won second place while the Riwaq Center for Architectural Conservation came in third place.
In his speech, Dr. Kassis said that the Foundation has unanimously endorsed the Prize Committee’s decision to award the prize to PRCS in recognition of the leading and pioneering role it plays at the service of Palestinians in the Diaspora and Palestine.
Dr. Al Khatib thanked the Committee and the Foundation for their decision to award the prize to PRCS. “The fact that this prize is awarded on the 5th death anniversary of late President Arafat brings to mind hard and painful memories. However, this pain can be turned into hope, which is what the Yasser Arafat Foundation is all about”, he said. “We all remember Yasser Arafat’s humanity and his decision to establish PRCS as the PLO’s humanitarian branch. We were lucky to have him as the Society’s spiritual father, and he used to consider himself as PRCS’s first volunteer”, he added. Dr Al Khatib went on to speak about the first PRCS field hospital built in the Jordan Valley in 1969 to treat injured Palestinians arriving from the occupied Territory. “Late President Arafat laid the foundation for that hospital as well as for Al Quds Hospital in Gaza which was destroyed during the latest Israeli war on the Gaza Strip and is currently being rebuilt”, he added.
Dr. Al Khatib also spoke about one of the main features of PRCS, i.e. unity, which still characterizes PRCS forty years after its inception. He recalled Dr. Fathi Arafat, the Society’s founding father as well as the 180 PRCS employees and volunteers who fell in the course of duty, including 16 members who fell during the Al Aqsa Intifada. Dr. Al Khatib added that PRCS shall pursue its humanitarian mission despite dire conditions whether on the Iraqi-Syrian borders, in Lebanon, in Palestine –and especially Gaza-, in Syria or in Egypt. PRCS will also continue to symbolize Palestinian unity.
Moreover, Al Khatib touched on the Society’s international role and presence as part of the IFRC. He announced that PRCS, represented by Dr. Jean Calder, has won the Henry Davison Award for humanitarian action awarded by IFRC to a personality active in the humanitarian field. Dr. Al Khatib dedicated this prize to the memory of late President Arafat, pledging to him and to Palestinians to continue providing and further developing PRCS humanitarian services and to enhance the Society’s accomplishments.
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