Dr. Eyad El Sarraj, President of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP), has been awarded the prestigious Juan J. Lopez Ibor 2010 award in psychiatry. After having received the award he sent a worm thank you letter to Dr. Ruchama Marton, Founder & President of PHR-IL, acknowledging the years long support and cooperation between the two organizations.

The ties between Dr. Sarraj and Dr. Marton started before the establishment of both organizations, during a visit of a group of Israeli and Palestinian Doctors, initiated by Dr. Marton, to learn about the general situation and health conditions in Gaza, just after the first Intifada started. Dr. Sarraj, then the only psychiatrist in the whole Gaza strip, guided the visitors through Shifa hospital and hosted the group at his home. In fact, the idea to create PHR-IL (then called Israeli-Palestinian Physicians for Human Rights) was born at Dr. Sarraj home in Gaza.

Two month later, at the opening conference in Tel Aviv of the PHR-IL, Dr. Sarraj said: "It is an honor for me to be a part of this association".

A few years later Dr. Sarraj established the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP) and the two organizations maintained close ties. Dr. Marton was invited to serve as a board member of the GCMHP. Over the years the two organizations established professional relations which included psychotherapeutic training for mental health staff in Gaza, and working on joint conferences and more.

The latest cooperation was the exhibition 'Childhood under Fire', a unique joint exhibition of drawings, made by Gazan children during the year after the 'Cast Lead' attack on Gaza, collected by the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme.