1978
UPA was established in the State of New York by a group of Palestinian-Americans from the business and professional communities who shared the objective of creating an efficient and professionally managed charity that would assist needy Palestinians and contribute to socioeconomic and cultural development in Palestine.
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1980
UPA was granted tax-exempt status under Section 501 (c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. UPA's federal tax-exemption I.D. number is 11-2494808.1985
UPA became the first Palestinian-American charity to be registered with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as a Private and Voluntary Organization (PVO).UPA became the first Palestinian-American charity to be registered with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as a Private and Voluntary Organization (PVO).*
UPA began funding the construction of a $2.4 million nursing college on the Mount of Olives affiliated with Al-Makassed Islamic Charitable Hospital.
Thanks to a $1.1 million grant from King Fahd of Saudi Arabia and his brother Prince Salman, UPA was also able to greatly expand its assistance programs in the areas of health care, education, children's services, community development, and emergency relief.
1986
UPA initiated its Child Sponsorship Program.
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1987
In the last three years, UPA sent nearly $450,000 in emergency medicines and supplies to Palestinian refugees in Southern Lebanon. With the outbreak of the first Intifada at the end of 1987, UPA shifted its funding priorities to emergency medical relief for Intifada-related injuries.1989
UPA became the first Palestinian-American charity accepted by the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC), the national organization allowing for charitable solicitation of federal government employees.1990
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1991
UPA was accepted as a participating member agency by the Independent Charities of America (ICA), a nationwide consortium of approved charities soliciting state, federal and local public employees.1994
In the wake of the Oslo agreement, UPA refocused its grant making on programs aimed at the long-term socioeconomic recovery and development of Palestinian society in the West Bank and Gaza.2000
From 2000 onwards, UPA responded to the second Intifada by giving priority to emergency medical relief programs.2001
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The Anabta branch of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) received a grant from UPA for the expansion of the primary and specialized programs in its clinic. Construction of a new wing of the clinic—including a maternity ward, an ambulance and emergency section, and x-ray and medical labs—were completed, thus greatly improving health services for the Anabta community of 25,000.
2002
UPA was awarded a $2.7 million grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to implement a job creation and infrastructure development program throughout the West Bank and Gaza in cooperation with the Welfare Association in East Jerusalem. The program represented an emergency response to devastating economic collapse, including an unemployment rate of over 60 percent.
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2003
UPA's support of humanitarian programs in the West Bank and Gaza totaled $2,588,140 for the year. As well as continuing with the USAID-funded job creation program that began in 2002, UPA expanded its child sponsorship program from just over 600 children in 2002 to 855 in 2003, helping a widening circle of poor families provide for their children.In response to closures and plummeting income levels, UPA gave priority to alleviating two of the most pressing problems facing Palestinians: shortages of medicine and lack of jobs. To ease shortages, we stepped up our in-kind donation program, shipping over $424,000 worth of medicines and supplies to West Bank hospitals and clinics.
2004
UPA's support of humanitarian programs in the West Bank and Gaza totaled $2,745,499 for the year. UPA awarded grants in the areas of education, health, community development, child sponsorships, and family relief.2005
UPA's support of humanitarian programs in the West Bank and Gaza totaled $779,630 for the year. Thanks to the repeated contributions of committed donors over twenty-seven years, UPA has been able to invest over $15 million in Palestinian health care, community development, and education.2007
Working with the US-based Sabre Foundation, UPA sent more than $600,000 worth of academic textbooks to the West Bank. The more than 8,000 books -- covering topics in science, technology, and medicine -- were selected by Palestinian educators at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem. The shipment came as Palestinian universities and their students face tightening budgets and ever-scarcer resources.
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Through a $225,000 grant from United Palestinian Appeal, the Welfare Association provided 1,000 children in 13 kindergartens in the Gaza Strip with daily hot meals for six months. The project has the dual benefit of providing basic food aid to the neediest in Gaza while also benefiting a starving economy. Food is purchased from local Palestinian producers and suppliers and distributed in the community.
2008
Charity Navigator, America's premier independent charity evaluator, informed UPA at the beginning of March that it had awarded four out of a possible four stars to UPA. In earning Charity Navigator's highest four star rating, UPA has demonstrated exceptional financial health, outperforming most of its peers in its efforts to manage and grow its finances in the most fiscally responsible way possible.In December, as Israel launched a massive military campaign in Gaza, UPA and its partner Relief International (RI), fueled by an unprecedented outflow of public support, embarked on an initiative to provide direct relief to thousands of Palestinian refugees displaced by the fighting and facing hunger and malnutrition.
Prior to Israel's December 27th invasion of Gaza, Relief International had received a UPA grant to train more than 700 first responders in northern Gaza. The program had managed to train 58 first responders before the military campaign.
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2009
UPA's emergency work in Gaza continued through to the new year with several partner organizations in Gaza.On January 1st, UPA announced that more than 4,000 endotracheal tubes, purchased through an emergency grant, were delivered today to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society for distribution to hospitals throughout Gaza, including the hard-hit north. The supplies are listed as "high-priority" items by the World Health Organization (WHO). Endotracheal tubes allow doctors and nurses to stabilize trauma victims who cannot breathe on their own. Nearly half of the tubes purchased are designed for use on children.
UPA's partner Al Huda Development Association distributed bread rations to more than 700 families in and around the Rafah refugee camp. As with other partner organizations, UPA helped Al Huda replenish its emergency relief funds with support from individual donations in the United States and beyond.
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UPA confirmed on January 5th that 95 first aid kits were distributed to volunteer medics in eastern Gaza City, where Israel's ground assault has severely hindered access to medical care for the sick and wounded. More than 800 square meters of plastic sheeting to cover bombed-out windows and protect families from the cold were also distributed. The effort helped more than 200 families.
An emergency grant to UPA's partner, the Palestine Center for Youth Work, funded rations for 200 families in eastern Gaza City. The rations, which were distributed by PCYW staff who live in the area, will be purchased locally from suppliers who have agreed to provide the items on credit. As with our other emergency grants over the last two weeks, UPA funds are providing a guarantee of payment to suppliers once banks in Gaza re-open and cash is allowed back in to the Strip.
The food baskets cost approximately $50 each and contain canned meat and beans, tuna, jam, hummus, milk powder, sugar, and other basic items. Each basket can feed an average family for 10-14 days. Additionally, UPA shipped an in-kind donation of sleeping bags, blankets, and hygiene kits to assist the more than 20,000 homeless families whose homes were destroyed by the bombing.
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Working with Relief International (RI), the first phase of the "Emergency Parcel Project" provided 1,000 families (approximately 6,000 people) displaced by the fighting with sugar, salt, canned beef, canned tuna, white rice, vegetable oil, and canned beans for the a month. Multiple food assistance programs were successfully implemented throughout January.
"UPA's flexibility and ability to rapidly respond to changing needs helped us immediately address critical needs from the first days of the Gaza crisis."Commenting on UPA's response, RI's Program Officer Ben Granby said, "UPA's flexibility and ability to rapidly respond to changing needs helped us immediately address critical needs from the first days of the Gaza crisis."
— Relief International Program Officer Ben Granby
In March, UPA partnered with International Relief and Development (IRD) to ship a 40-foot container of donated surgical and trauma care supplies. The nearly one-million-dollars' worth of supplies include surgical equipment like speculums, forceps, clamps, and arteriogram trays for radiology, as well as disposables like syringes, sterile field towels, and burn dressings.
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