For more than three decades, Steve Sosebee has been one of the most consistent humanitarian voices for Palestinian children. He founded the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) in 1991 and led it for thirty years, bringing thousands of injured and sick children abroad for free medical care, building the first pediatric cancer department in Palestine, and growing PCRF into one of the largest humanitarian organizations operating on the ground.
At the end of 2023, in the months following October 7 and the catastrophic destruction in Gaza, Steve made what he called the hardest decision of his life: he left the organization he had built and started over from zero. On January 1, 2024, he co-founded HEAL Palestine.
This week on the Muslim Philanthropy Podcast, AMCF Co-Founder and Chief Development Officer Muhi Khwaja sat down with Steve to talk about the journey, the decision, and the work ahead.
From Kent, Ohio, to the West Bank
Steve grew up in Kent, Ohio — the small college town that became synonymous with the May 4, 1970 shooting of unarmed students by the National Guard. He was too young to remember the incident itself, but he grew up inside its legacy. His parents — a high school teacher and a nurse — raised him with a worldview shaped by social justice, and that orientation guided him into international relations at Kent State University.
The First Intifada began while Steve was still a student. In the winter of 1988, he was selected for a delegation organized by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) to the West Bank and Gaza. That trip, he told Muhi on the podcast, changed his life forever. After graduation, he went back to Palestine as a freelance writer, sleeping on couches, traveling through the occupied territories, and reporting for outlets like the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and the Arab American News.
Along the way, he kept meeting injured children who couldn’t get the medical care they needed. He started arranging treatment for them in the United States — first one child, then a few more. By the time the work outgrew what one person could manage on the side of a journalism career, he founded PCRF. Soon after, he met and married Huda Al Masri, a Palestinian social worker who became co-founder and head social worker. Together, with the support of Dr. Musa and Suhaila Nasir, they built the organization for the next seventeen years.
When Huda passed away from leukemia in 2009, leaving Steve to raise their two daughters, Deema and Jenna, he moved the family back to Palestine to be close to her family. PCRF inaugurated the first pediatric cancer department in Palestine at Beit Jala Hospital in her name and honor.
Why he started over
When the war on Gaza began in October 2023, Steve found himself leading a 30-year-old organization with substantial resources sitting in the bank — but unable to get the board to approve the expanded scope he believed the moment demanded. He wanted to add education programs, food kitchens, broader humanitarian aid. The board’s vision stayed narrow.
“My duty and my service is not to any organization,” he said on the podcast. “It’s to a people, and it’s to a struggle. It’s to a cause which is greater than myself.”
He left PCRF on December 31, 2023. The next day, with co-founders Dr. Zeena Salman (his wife, a pediatric oncologist), Tania Nasir (daughter of Dr. Musa and Suhaila Nasir), and a small team, he launched HEAL Palestine.
What HEAL stands for
HEAL is an acronym for the four pillars of the organization: Health, Education, Aid, and Leadership. Each pillar reflects a need Steve and his team saw on the ground that wasn’t being adequately addressed.
On the health side, HEAL runs field hospitals and clinics, deploys medical missions, and operates a mental health team providing trauma services. The organization has brought more than 60 children from Gaza to the United States for free medical care over the past two years, with roughly 20 to 25 currently being treated by host families and care networks in cities across the country. Because the United States has paused issuing visas to Palestinians, HEAL has begun sending children to other countries for treatment as well — the first patients arrived in Mexico City last week, and the first cohorts are headed to Portugal and Spain.
On the education side, HEAL operates schools in both Egypt (for displaced Palestinian families) and inside Gaza, along with tutoring programs and scholarships.
On the aid side, the organization runs food kitchens in Gaza City, bakeries, water rehabilitation projects, and desalination work. There is a dedicated amputee program for the thousands of children who have lost limbs, and an orphan program providing holistic care — basic needs, mental health support, education, and medical care — for children who have lost parents in the war.
On the leadership side, HEAL is investing in young Palestinians on the ground, mentoring them, and building Gaza-led organizations. Steve was clear about the goal: “Their cause, their country. We’re here to support them, not to tell them what their needs are.”
What Steve said to people who feel hopeless
Muhi asked Steve what he would say to people who feel they can’t make a difference — that nothing they do moves the larger picture. Steve’s answer was direct: recalibrate.
The 12-year-old girl in Seattle who lost both legs above the knees won’t get the occupation to end. But there is a community of people in her city right now taking her to appointments, fitting her prosthetics, and helping her learn to walk again. That, Steve said, is what makes her whole. That is what heals her — and what helps heal the people walking beside her, too.
“The people in Gaza haven’t given up yet,” he said. “They don’t have the luxury to give up.” For people watching from a distance, the question isn’t whether you can fix everything. It’s what you can do today.
How to support
You can learn more about HEAL Palestine and donate at healpalestine.org. For donors who would like to support HEAL through their AMCF donor-advised fund, our team can help facilitate the grant — reach out and we’ll walk you through it.
Listen to the full conversation on the Muslim Philanthropy Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts.
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