Important Medical Work to do in Palestine
Dear friends,
The Free Palestine Movement is using its newsletter to help recruit medical personnel for an important project in the West Bank in the last two weeks of March, 2014. If you are in contact with a nurse, doctor, technician or paramedic interested in participating, please put them in touch with Carl Walker and Joy Elkinton-Walker as indicated below. Please note that although the announcement is directed to San Francisco Bay Area residents, Joy informs us that the program welcomes participants regardless of location. Thank you.
Notice of Medical Discovery Tour to Palestine
This information is addressed to persons in the Bay Area who have a concern about the unresolved crisis between Israel and Palestine. Now we have some disturbing information from a friend of ours who is now here from Bethlehem where she currently lives. Christy Reiners has been a Walnut Creek resident for many years and now lives in Bethlehem. Her organization, “In His Steps” facilitates people on tours of awareness and understanding in the Holy Land where Jesus taught and traveled.
It has been reported that girls in the villages of the south Hebron hills as young as 15 years old have been detected with late stage breast cancer. At present there is insufficient equipment for early detection and diagnosis for women out in the villages. International averages for detection of breast cancer during late-stage, incurable is 20% but statistics in Palestine for late-stage detection show 70% of the women that are diagnosed are late-stage. Patients frequently have to be sent out of the country for expensive treatment that is not covered by medical insurance.
Christy has been asked by Mr. Zafar Al’Nobani, the Head of Humanitarian Assistance at the Palestinian President’s Office, and in collaboration with Bethlehem University to find interest from the U.S. of concerned people including doctors, nurses, midwives, medical technicians, data researchers as well as interested supporters to come to the Holy Land to observe the situation and help formulate a plan that could address and support the problem in a sustainable way.
Dr. Paul Hofmann with MedShare International, a non-profit organization that recycles hospital equipment and dated equipment from medical manufacturers for use in crisis situations overseas has been meeting with us. Orinda Community Church had a Forum in June where Christy Reiners and Dr. Paul Hofmann spoke and created a concern about the medical situation in Palestine.
Some of the members of Orinda Community Church are now planning a Medical Discovery Tour to the Holy Land with “In His Steps” to assess the situation and make some recommendations for a sustainable way to address the problems and help alleviate the crisis over there. The Medical Team Tour is scheduled for this spring during the last two weeks of March.
If you have some names or groups from your associates, would you be willing to share them with us? There will be several meetings in January and February to make plans and to establish the itinerary, schedule flights, and prepare entry visas, but time is short and we need to gather interested persons soon.
If interested, please contact us at elkwalk@comcast.net.
Peace, Shalom and Salaam,
Joy Elkinton-Walker and Carl Walker
Free Palestine Movement: https://freepalestinemovement.org
Donations: https://freepalestinemovement.org/donate-2/