Primary Health Care
6 January 2010
MAP is committed to strengthening primary health care in remote areas or areas affected by the Separation Wall that the Ministry of Health (MoH) services cannot fully support.
Local NGO partners are chosen based on their commitment to providing impartial, accessible, affordable and appropriate services to all within their community. MAP supports two primary health care partners in the West Bank. In the south, the Union of Health Work Committees delivers primary health care services to over 15,000 Palestinians in villages isolated by the Separation Wall and a clinic in the Old City of Hebron surrounded by settlers. In the north, the Union of Health Care Committees serves remote rural areas and communities also affected by the Separation Wall. Both these partners are supported by a core grant which allows them to plan their primary health care services and prioritise services to communities with the greatest need.
MAP supports two Maternal and Child Health programmes in the West Bank, one with the Bedouin communities of the Jordan valley and one in Yatta, a traditionally under-resourced area with high population and poverty rates in the southern West Bank. The project to support the Bedouin community is run by our local partner, the Islah Charitable Society (ICS) and is supported by the European Commission. The project addresses the health needs of nomadic and semi-settled communities who have been badly affected by the many restrictions on movement in the West Bank.
The traditional Bedouin way of life has become almost impossible, and poverty rates have soared. Acute anaemia in women and malnutrition in children are high. The project provides mobile outreach clinics offering access to a full range of health care services. During the course of the programme, MAP has also upgraded the main ICS clinic to support referrals.
In the Hebron District, MAP is also working with local organisation Ard el-Atfal to increase access to maternal and child health services through providing antenatal and postnatal care to 40% of expectant and existing mothers in the Yatta area. These services have increased the number of screened women in the clinics, reducing illnesses through early detection and significantly diminishing anaemia and malnourishment for children below five years.
In Nahr el-Bared refugee camp, Northern Lebanon, MAP is working to minimise the impact of the camp's destruction on maternal and child health, implementing home visits by a team of midwives to monitor the well-being of mothers and children living in inadequate temporary housing.
Supported by Irish Aid, the project works alongside UNRWA to maximise access to a holistic and integrated maternal and child healthcare system. In conjunction with this project, MAP works with the Community Mothers Scheme in Tripoli to train women to offer psychosocial support to mothers in Nahr el-Bared, raising awareness of health and well-being within the home.
In the West Bank, MAP also supports the training of community health workers as a means to build local capacity and participation in health. The Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS) School of Community Health, prepares young women from remote and marginalised areas in the West Bank to act as community health workers. The training combines theoretical and practical components of health development and community participation, with nursing, social and counselling skills, encouraging the participants to become key agents of change within their own communities.
