Wigs for Gaza.

I have been doing a small simple act for the women of Gaza / Palestine for a few years now. Because I work in opera we got lots of good quality wigs for the shows, but regularly the wigs get replaced with new ones, occasionally I buy a few new ones and I recycle some of the stage prop wigs. I pay to get them cleaned and if they're still in good condition I sent these wigs off to Gaza for cancer patients.

I never realised just how important this simple act is. Lots of women (and men and children) can't get the cancer treatment they need, but some of the luckier ones do, but they don't receive the best cancer treatments that are available in other countries. Some of the women who have cancer lose their hair due to the treatment, this can be devastating to the women, but they're all brave enough to deal with this, but sadly most of the women are young and have young children, and its their young children who struggle here. The children can find it very distressing and upsetting to see their mother's hair fall out, so the simple gift of a wig brings lots of comfort to these mother's and their children. The mother's are also able to cope better not seeing their children upset and distressed.

In the past I've had nasty, dumb comments from people saying it shouldn't bother Muslim women because they wear a hijab/head scarf! Well there's two things to remember, number one not all people in Gaza / Palestine are Muslim, some are Christian. And secondly, not all Muslim women wear a hijab / head scarf, and the ones who do, don't wear it 24 hours a day, they wear them out in public, but not all the time at home.

I will be sending these wigs off soon. I hope this post helps people see that just little acts of kindness can change a person's life, sometimes a whole family can benefit from something small that might even appear trivial.