A Gift from Heaven

Hope is a word that hardly exists for the people of the West Bank any more. Too many years of conflict have moulded life here into a treadmill of existence. The situation for most ordinary people has only gone from bad to worse in the last few years. After the second Intifada in 2000 – a spontaneous Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, Israel started closing its borders and checkpoints were installed throughout the West Bank. Israel argues that these checkpoints together with a permit system, the West Bank barrier and a restricted road network of 1,661 km largely for Israeli use - protect its citizens from terror attacks. However, these obstacles serve to control the movement of people and goods and in so doing they have a devastating impact on the livelihoods of ordinary people. Today there are more than 600 obstacles to movement in the West Bank. What was said to be constructed for Israeli security massively influences the life of Palestinians. For example, those living in remote villages now have to make detours to find roads they are permitted to drive on – and they have to wait at checkpoints. This makes what were ordinary visits to essential services – such as going to the doctor an arduous chore, expensive and time-consuming chore. “The people here are poor“, says Nisreen Hraini from Twana, a small village in the very dry region south of Hebron. “Sometimes they have a tractor but mostly they come on a donkey or just walk to the mobile clinic.” Nisreen is visiting the clinic with one of her six children who aren’t feeling well. The clinic which boasts a doctor and an assistant is provided by CARE with ECHO funding (the humanitarian aid programme of the European Commission). “This mobile clinic is a gift from heaven” says Nisreen happily. Three years ago, when there was no clinic her daughter almost died. “She had a high fever. And we had nothing to help her,” she remembers. The only reason her daughter survived is because a neighbour, one of the few in the village who had a car, drove them to the hospital in Hebron. Today, thanks clinic run by CARE and funded by ECHO, basic healthcare is available once a week. In addition to consultations with a doctor, Nisreen Hraini and other villagers can purchase essential medicine less than a dollar. Twice a month a gynaecologist is also available. The mobile clinic is for this agricultural worker a relief. “The children are often sick, so I am very happy that the doctor now comes to us.