CARE West Bank and Gaza Helping in the Jenin Area in Home Based Outreach Activities and Awareness Raising Training 29 March 2007. There are very few Palestinian organizations that focus on assisting the elderly. Yet one organization, the Elderly Home Charitable Society, stands out in the way it supports the elderly and disabled children. The Elderly Home, located in Jenin City in the most northern part of the West Bank, normally provides assistance to 20 – 30 elderly men and women whose economic and social conditions render them unable to care for themselves. The Home also provides medical assistance and therapy to 100 persons of all ages in their family homes free of charge, as part of the outreach activities. The Elderly Home is the only organization in the Jenin area that conducts home based outreach activities. Usually the extended family takes care of the elderly in Palestinian society, but increased unemployment and travel restrictions are exerting a heavy economic toll. According to recent economic statistics, the Palestinian economy shrank 21 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006 compared with the previous year and health care is among the sectors most affected. Azhar Jaffar, Director of the Elderly Home, took part in a mapping survey in 2003 that highlighted the situation of the elderly and handicapped of all ages in 28 villages in the Jenin area. This survey included an assessment of their needs and priorities, which enabled the Elderly Home to focus its resources on the neediest beneficiaries in providing physiotherapy, occupational therapy, psychology, and social help. Mohammad Yihya, Chairman of the Board, and the team with him in the Home, saw an announcement by CARE in local newspapers asking NGOs to submit proposals in the rehabilitation sector. According to Yihya: “now we have a formal agreement with CARE West Bank and Gaza, to help the elderly and the disabled.” Fatmeh Jaber, Deputy Head of the Board at the Elderly Home, is proud of the fact that workshops are taking place in the local Jenin communities regarding the rights of the disabled and elderly, which includes both informing the families of the disabled of their rights under Palestinian Authority legal code and promotes a positive attitude towards the elderly and the disabled. According to Fatmeh Jaber: “There are laws in place for the benefit of the elderly and disabled. I am encouraging them to get in touch with Members of Parliament, Ministries, village councils, and to make their voice heard. According to the Law, 7% of jobs in the public sector should be kept for the handicapped, but this is not implemented.” Haya Sayed, in the village of Faqoua’ east of Jenin and near the Wall, is one of the beneficiaries of home based outreach therapy. She is only seven years old. Haya is suffering from brain paralysis caused by oxygen deficiency, which affects her ability to move around. Haya is impaired in her ability to absorb knowledge, speak, and hear. She is living with her grandparents, and her aunt is taking care of her. Currently, two therapists from the Elderly Home regularly visit Haya and her family as part of the home based outreach program. They are providing occupational therapy and physiotherapy sessions to Haya and offering orientation to her aunt on how to help the little girl with physical exercise. Haya is showing signs of improvement. At first her arms and feet were rigid and she would often fall down. Now she is walking, her cognition is improving, and she remembers the exercises she has to do. Haya is receiving rehabilitation services for the first time in her life thanks to the Elderly Home. However, she needs continuous follow-up, at a time when her family cannot take her to Jerusalem for treatment because they have no travel permits and no money, and they cannot travel even to nearby locations in the West Bank. Wisam, the occupational therapist for Haya, had this to say during a therapy session about the general effect of the Elderly Home’s activities and support had not only on the lives of the disabled but her own life as a professional: “As an occupational therapist, this is the first time I find myself as part of an integrated effort where an outpatient center will open. We are the only people doing this type of work, and I am looking forward to the technical training I will attend.” Zaina is Haya’s physiotherapist and likes to imagine Haya improving her balance through physiotherapy, and preventing further damage to her spinal cord. Had it not been for the help Haya is receiving at her home, Zaina believes her situation would have deteriorated. Zaina believes that she is helping not only to improve Haya’s ability to move around and play like any other child, but is also giving Haya and her family hope for a better future. Another child, Abdullah, is three years old and developmentally challenged. With help from occupational therapy and physiotherapy, his hand muscles and feet are getting stronger and he can sit down. The specialists are saying that with treatment, Abdullah may even enter school, something his parents couldn’t even imagine before the Elderly Home’s therapists visited. The therapists discovered that possibly his case is not as severe as they thought because he has no mental retardation, but he still needs supervision and follow-up. These activities are all part of a project devised by the Elderly Home called “Improving Living and Health Conditions of the Disabled and Elderly in the Jenin Area”, which is supported by CARE West Bank and Gaza under the Emergency Medical Assistance Project Phase III funded by the United States Agency for International Development. In addition to inpatient and outpatient therapy, CARE is also helping the Elderly Home Charitable Society provide community awareness raising workshops on issues involving the disabled and general disability in 28 villages isolated by the Wall in the Jenin area, physical and occupational therapy equipment, and wheel chairs. It also works with this organization on building its internal organizational and management systems. This way the Elderly Home can further improve its sustainability when the project ends. In Jenin, the elderly and parents of disabled children are finding hope at a time when they thought there was no hope. The economic and social conditions of these families have made it impossible to provide care to the people who need it most in their families. This has changed dramatically thanks to the activities of a committed organization working with these vulnerable groups. For More Information Please Contact Brian Block, Grant Specialist, (block@carewbg.org), or Irene Siniora, Grants Officer for the West Bank (siniora@carewbg.org)