Interview with Rachel Hadari from the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation
By Naia Gerigk Lopez & Louis Baud
Can you explain the Palestinian patients’ care process within the Saving Children Program ?
The initial phase of the process is a referral from a Palestinian pediatrician or hospital with the relevant documents. The program staff checks whether the treatment is available in the Palestinian public healthcare system (we only take cases that can not be treated in the PA). If eligible, we pass the request and the documents to the relevant Israeli hospital, department, doctor. If the case is accepted by the hospital we receive an appointment and contact the child’s family. We then proceed to get the needed entry permits from the Israeli authorities.
From this point Program staff are in contact with the parents and the Israeli doctors. Once the child completes his treatment and returns to his home we do the needed follow-ups, and pay the hospital. The Program gets a 30-50% discount on the official Israeli Ministry of Health prices.
What are the main challenges that the program deals with, in order to continue despite the conflict ?
The main challenge of the Program is financial capacity, there is a big demand and limited funds.
Currently there are no significant challenges for patients coming from the West Bank (because of the war bringing patients from Gaza is not possible). In fact, in the first few months of the war the Palestinians were afraid to come to travel to Israel.
How do the Palestinian children and their families perceive this help coming from Israelis, in the context of the current situation and war ?
The Palestinian families expected the programm to continue after the first few weeks of the war as it is perceived to be humanitarian. Of course I am talking only about Palestinians from the West Bank. In the current situation we can not bring in patients from Gaza.
What kind of medical treatment are mostly provided in the framework of the Saving Children Program ?
We provide complicated surgeries that are not done in the West Bank – cardiac surgery, neurosurgery, complicated orthopedic surgery, and more. We also provide consultation and diagnostic procedures that can not be provided by the Palestinian healthcare system largely because of lack of capacity and start of the art equipment.
How could we bring hope in this tragedy? If you could give out one message to the world regarding this, what would it be?
I believe that this kind of program, especially programs in the medical field, are critical for keeping the channels between Palestinians and Israelies open. This is where hope lies.
Peace will prevail because there are no other viable options.
Saving Children started in 2005 and until now has treated more than 13,000 Palestinian children from the West Bank and Gaza (about 30% from Gaza).
For further information: https://www.peres-center.org/en/the-israeli-innovation-center/explore/
