Project Rozana supports a dynamic, multi-disciplinary team that provides much needed health services to women and children in the West Bank.
The team of Palestinian female healthcare workers, composed of a gynecologist, general practitioner, midwife, nurses, a physiotherapist, nutritionist, and a psychologist, represent Women4Women (W4W), a program founded in 2021. The program has continued to function in recent months, despite the war taking place only 100km away. These women travel from their homes every weekday morning to serve women in remote villages.
The ability of W4W to accomplish these goals, despite the barriers they face every day, is enabled by its cooperation with Sheba Beyond, which provides access to the medical services and experts of Sheba Hospital in Tel Aviv through advanced telemedicine technologies. Dr. Avi Tsur, director of Women’s Health Innovation at Sheba Beyond, explained, “This is an example of Israelis and Palestinians working together creatively to assure better health outcomes for patients in need.”
On a recent morning, the women, stylish in their sunglasses and headscarves, greeted each other with warm smiles and hugs as they loaded a hand-held ultrasound machine and fetal monitor, heart rate and blood pressure monitors, glucose checker, medication, and a computer tablet, into the trunk of a silver 8-seater 4×4. Their destination was a remote village in the southwestern portion of the West Bank, formerly about an hour’s drive from Hebron, but now more than two hours away due to newly installed military roadblocks.
Despite the increased commute time and the gnawing fear for the well-being of the loved ones they leave at home every morning, the mood of the riders in the van was suffused with camaraderie and felt determinedly upbeat.
“Yalla, let’s go, girls” said the team leader, Amani, a physiotherapist by training. Soon the 4-wheel drive was bouncing along on a potholed, semi-paved road amidst rocky olive tree covered hillsides. Meanwhile, about 30 women and small children; including teenagers, pregnant women and others of child-bearing age, and grandmothers in their 70’s, had already gathered in a makeshift community center, patiently awaiting the arrival of the team.
What keeps them going? Each of the young women in the medical team understands they are performing an essential life-sustaining service; providing vital, free of charge health care to thousands of poor women and children in hard-to-reach villages around the southern West Bank, who otherwise would receive no health care at all. Not only are these rural women living in a conflict zone where transportation is becoming ever-more difficult, but many are illiterate and living in a tradition-bound society in which they are often not allowed to leave their village without a male companion.
W4W is one of the signature programs developed by Rozana, an international organization promoting access to quality healthcare through joint Palestinian and Israeli initiatives. Founded in 2013, Rozana has grown dramatically, becoming a major force on the healthcare scene by building productive relationships between hospitals and healthcare professionals in Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Presently, W4W serves six rural communities in Area C of the West Bank, which is under Israeli military control, including the delivery of primary and reproductive healthcare, as well as psychological services for women and children. While interacting with their patients in a culturally sensitive manner, the W4W team empowers them to make informed decisions about their own health and that of their children.
The W4W team’s workload continues to grow as they are seeing more than three times as many patients than they did before the war. Rozana‘s Director of Programming Diana Shehadeh-Nama said of her W4W multidisciplinary team, “For me, they are quite simply superwomen, who summon the strength to go out to the front lines of the healthcare crisis every morning and do everything possible to save lives and offer hope to the hard-pressed women and children they serve.”
Indeed, what motivates members of the W4W interdisciplinary team to keep it up day after day? Dr. Anna Dofesh, the team’s gynecologist, remarked, “I have been working in the field for 20 years, and still feel blessed to be in the position to help people. Team nurse Shurukh Aqel, commented, “I love what I do. I am keenly aware that our being there helps our patients greatly to improve their physical health and stabilize their psychic well-being.”
Rozana CEO Ronit Zimmer emphasizes, “Health care is a human right and must be accessible and delivered with kindness and respect, regardless of religion or ethnicity. Fulfilling that vision is the mission of the W4W medical team and despite the enormous odds, they are doing it brilliantly.”
Walter Ruby
Walter Ruby is a longtime journalist, activist in Muslim-Jewish relations, and co-author with Sabeeha Rehman of "We Refuse to Be Enemies.
