A Palestine awareness group hosted a coffee fundraiser at a café in Crystal Palace on March 3 and raised £700 for a destroyed music school in Gaza.
The Crystal Palace Friends of Palestine (CPFP) sold a range of sweet and savoury Palestinian pastries at the Paxton Centre Café in Anerley Hill for PalMusic UK, its adopted charity.
PalMusic UK is the UK ambassador for the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music in Palestine whose Gaza branch was destroyed in January.
The Paxton Centre Café allowed the CPFP to host their fundraiser within the café free of charge and the money raised from the event will be used to support the displaced music teachers and students.
Chair of the CPFP, Marian Carty, said: “We want to remember the dead but at the same time think about what should happen next.
“That’s why the music and the arts are so important, because in times of distress and despair we turn to poetry and music in order to lift our spirits and give us hope for the future.
“That’s what we want: to make sure that Palestine has a future, and we’ll share Palestinian culture through food and music.”
CPFP has previously supported the music lessons of 22 children in Gaza through their adopted charity of PalMusic UK.
PalMusic UK stated: “We support this vital work that currently benefits 600 children and brings joy and hope despite the extreme political and economic challenges of their daily lives.”
The CPFP group was set up in late 2021 and began with 12 people, but now reaches 2300 people on its mailing list.
Its most recent activity was hosting vigils outside of Crystal Palace Park with speakers and musicians in order to pay their respects to the lives lost in Gaza.
The organisation consists of a mixture of faiths, hosting speakers from the Jewish Network for Palestine at their December vigil, and also a speech from an artist from Gaza who spoke about how his 91-year-old grandmother had been killed.
They continue to spread awareness through fundraising events including fundraisers with goods sold, protests and Palestinian movie screenings that you can find out more about on their website.
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