GAZA APPEAL
In a promising step towards improving medical care and rehabilitation, the Jerusalem Princess Basma Centre just last month embarked on a significant project, by establishing its new clinic operating at Al -Ahli Hospital in the heart of the Gaza Strip. This groundbreaking initiative, aimed at improving the lives of children with disabilities, is a critical milestone in extending specialized medical assistance and rehabilitation services to the most vulnerable members of the community. The collaboration between the Jerusalem Princess Basma Centre and Al -Ahli Hospital intends to bring about positive change, meet a critical need and bring new hope to the Palestinian children and their families.
While the newly renovated unit in a wing of Al Ahli Hospital was almost ready, and with four excited staff members appointed and ready to launch this new program, Princess Basma staff now find themselves reeling from the news that has unfolded in and around Gaza.
For the Jerusalem Princess Basma Centre, this means instead of planning the opening of life-giving services in Gaza, they find themselves seeking news about the welfare of their new staff and friends working in Al Ahli Hospital and of Gazan families and their children that they have treated in Jerusalem.
So far, we know that Al Ahli Hospital is in the evacuation zone. We know its new cancer diagnostic centre has been hit and that four staff were injured. It has been reported that the four staff in the new Princess Basma satellite unit are still safe. It is unknown what the coming days and weeks will bring for this hospital, for its work of healing, and indeed for all the people of Gaza.
What are the Centre doing?
This is a rapidly changing picture. Now, and for the rest of this month, the priority of the Jerusalem Princess Basma team is to sustain services for West Bank families through Telemedicine and to begin to make contact with those Gazan families already known to staff.
So far, since the conflict began, the Child Rehabilitation Centre has delivered a package of Telemedicine services to 50 vulnerable families in the West Bank.
Each Telemedicine program costs £380. The Centre aims to reach 8-10 families every day and up to 50 families in one week.
This will mean that in spite of the current distressing reality for this land and its people, by the end of the month, 150 vulnerable families will receive psycho-social support and 150 children with disabilities will receive their rehabilitation programs online. It will cost the center £56,800 to deliver this work.
How you can help
The Jerusalem Princess Basma Centre urgently needs your help to continue and scale up its services for the children of Gaza.
100% of funds that are donated through JustAct Middle East will be passed directly to the Jerusalem Princess Basma Centre.
This is Mohammed
"Mohammed, pictured here, was the first child to be assessed in Gaza by the visiting Princess Basma team.
He was admitted for treatment at the Jerusalem base for three weeks with his grandmother. Though they asked to stay, his initial program had ended and Mohammed was discharged and referred for ongoing treatment in our new satellite unit.
The center staff feared for them, having returned to Gaza just before the attack on Isreal and the ensuing violence. What joy to find that an appointment at Muqassed hospital, opposite our center, had delayed their return and kept them in Jerusalem. Miraculously, the center have now re-admitted Mohammed for a new course of treatment which the JPBC will fund."
