Looking for a brighter future is hard when you cannot see
Everybody needs inspiration. Everybody needs hope. For one World Vision sponsored girl living in a makeshift Bedouin tent located in the middle of the Hebron desert in the Palestinian West Bank, hope means being able to walk, learn and play like any girl her age. The daily reality for Sharouq is undeniably harsh - like that of so many children living in the occupied Palestinian territories.Malnutrition is globally the most important risk factor for illness and death, contributing to more than half of all child deaths worldwide. In the occupied Palestinian territories, chronic malnutrition for children under five has risen to more than 10% and 70% of children are vitamin A deficient.
The Bedouin community in Masafer Bani Naim consists of about 75 families with an average household size of six, including parents and children. Sharouq is one of these children– a 14-year-old who looks much younger. She is very small for her age and has sad brown eyes, glimpsed on the rare occasions when she looks up and makes eye contact.
Malnutrition is globally the most important risk factor for illness and death, contributing to more than half of all child deaths worldwideAfflicted with rheumatism and severe malnutrition, the simplest actions that come naturally to others are often impossible for Sharouq. Walking is difficult because of her rheumatism. She has not attended school since the third grade, because it hurts too badly to make the hour-long walk to school. Sharouq is blind in one eye and partly blind in the other due to the medicine she has to take, when her family manages to buy it. And what little she can see is from the vantage point of someone much younger.
The Bedouin communities in this area are living in very poor conditions, without water or electricity. Many do not have livestock or a means of making a living. Poverty is becoming an inherited disease here.
About 80% of these Bedouin community residents primarily depend on the agricultural sector, while 15% depend on the Israeli labour market, and 5% on governmental or other employment. Available grazing land is declining due to land closures and confiscation by Israeli authorities, as well as drought during the past few years.
Sharouq shares a tent with her three younger brothers and three sisters, and her parents. They own one donkey and a few chickens. Sharouq’s mother, Jawaher, tries to stay strong for her children, but even so her despair is evident. She is desperate for her daughter Sharouq to undergo surgery that will help her to see again. The family has asked for assistance, but still needs US$2,500 to give their daughter this chance.
I want to get better. I want to read, but I can’t see. I want to go back to school but it’s far, and I get tired walking“We live off tea and bread. What can I do? Potatoes, tomatoes, we have no money to get it - it doesn’t matter if it is expensive or not,” says Sharouq’s 32-year-old mother Jawaher who gave birth to her daughter when she was just 18.
Sharouq’s one wish is to not be sick anymore. “I want to get better. I want to read, but I can’t see. I want to go back to school but it’s far, and I get tired walking.”
Poor access and quality of maternal child health care and services are a major concern in the occupied Palestinian territories. Access is hindered by the lack of transportation or distant locations of clinics. Awareness by mothers on proper health practices is often lacking or inaccurate.
Because this family lives so far from health care facilities, they have to think twice before seeking medical attention. When a scorpion bit four-year-old Raghad while she was sleeping, Jawaher waited many hours before taking her to the hospital, hoping she would recover and the hour-long journey to the nearest hospital would prove unnecessary. The nearest hospital is in Bani Naim, and Jawaher and her children ride their one donkey as far as they can during the hour-long journey and walk the rest of the way. “I want the surgery so that I can get better and play with my brothers and sisters,” says Sharouq.
Most of the children suffer from anemia and stunting, due to the lack of proper nutrition and the lack of necessary medication, which they can not affordHaya Helal is a Programme Officer for World Vision in East Hebron who works to help Sharouq and her family and others like them. “Because of the poor health status of children in Bani Naim, there is a need for immediate intervention in terms of better health services, improved conditions and hygiene, access to health services, as well as to better living conditions in terms of basic services which affect health, such as water, toilets, etc, which all families in Masafer Bani Naim have no access to”, says Haya Helal.
“We have been supporting these families for the past two years, yet their need is still greater than what we can meet. Most of the children suffer from anemia and stunting, due to the lack of proper nutrition and the lack of necessary medication, which they can not afford,” he adds.
Sharouq’s father has been unemployed for the past five years, as he was denied a permit to enter Israel and work, where job opportunities are greater and more lucrative. About 55% of households in the occupied Palestinian territories formerly depended on employment in Israeli areas, which is no longer an option due to the increased restrictions on freedom of movement by the Israeli occupation.
In the occupied Palestinian territories, two of the main causes of malnutrition are insufficient health services and household food security, including access to clean drinking water. For Sharouq and her siblings, limited diet, lack of access to clean drinking water, and lack of sufficient health care all contribute to their state of malnutrition and vitamin deficiency.
“My children’s dream is to have food,” says Sharouq’s mother sadly.
More than 70% of households do not have consistent food consumption throughout the year and must reduce the quantity and quality of their meals. As a coping mechanism, many households become more reliant on low-cost items, such as bread, oil, tea, thyme, and others. “Sharouq’s rheumatism began when she was one year old. You can look at my children, you can see the effect. If they had food, they wouldn’t be like this,” adds Sharouq’s mother.
My children’s dream is to have foodFor Sharouq’s family of ten, water is a luxury. They shower when there is water available, and their small, mobile toilet standing next to their tent is a donation from a local organisation. When they have the money, they buy tank water or depend on untreated cisterns from the village nearby, carrying it home by donkey. “We need two hours to get water from the well,” says Jawaher.
According to reports by Israeli civil society organisation B’Tselem, Israel holds almost complete control of the main water source in the West Bank, using 80% percent of the production for its needs, and the remaining 20% for the communities of the occupied Palestinian territories. Almost 9% of Palestinians in the West Bank (191,000 persons) live in communities that are not connected to a running-water system. Another 190,000 live in communities in which the water supplied by the system is limited and does not reach all residential areas.
“Poor health status among infants and children in the targeted communities is also related to mother’s lack of knowledge and malpractices mainly associated with infant feeding, newborn care and care during illness,” says World Vision’s Nutrition and Health Coordinator Hana Rabadi.
“World Vision responded to this need by connecting with mothers at a household level. Shortly after our intervention, it was noticed that many of the mothers’ nutritional and health practices improved. In the future, we hope to be able to expand our work to include more areas and more households all over the Palestinian territories.”
Dr. Abed Rabo Manasra, the Head of the Board of Directors for the Red Crescent Clinic in Bani Naim, Hebron, says that health in the rural areas is deteriorating, especially in Hebron. “Sixty to seventy percent of people in the rural areas of Hebron have health insurance, but there is not enough assistance from the government or local health organisations because they don’t provide all the medications required, especially for major illnesses.”
He continues, “Because unemployment is so high, about 52 percent of families are not able to afford the necessary medicine and medical equipment. Hence, there is a great need to invest more in the health sector, especially in terms of treatment and health services.”
In a population where about 40% of residents are children under five and women of child-bearing age, maternal and child health is crucial to the present and future health of Palestinians. Despite the presence of health facilities in many areas, these services are limited due to the vast amount of people they serve and in many cases, problems of understaffing or limited scope of services and capacity-building for staff.
“In the winter, it’s very cold. We try to save food. When we got the kitchen supplies from World Vision, we stopped burning the animal waste in a pit like we used to, to cook the food,” says Sharouq’s mother of one initiative by World Vision where 65 East Hebron Bedouin families were given kitchenware and equipment.
World Vision continues to support families like Sharouq’s by arranging counselling and training for households, distributing hygiene kits and information, empowering communities in child and maternal health, opening new clinics, and strengthening the capacity of health care centres. World Vision is also working on health campaigns and building awareness in health, specifically maternal and child health, with the Ministries of Education and Health.
World Vision staff in Hebron are also giving of their own food and clothes to Sharouq and her family and the other Bedouin families in the area, hoping this will give them further comfort.
This help and sponsorship is making a difference, but it is a drop in the ocean. So much more needs to be done to give families income generating opportunities and the chance to provide for themselves– not just for the present, but for their children’s future.
Sources:
1) UNICEF, www.unicef.org
2) Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), www.pcbs.gov.ps
3) Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics Palestinian Family Health Survey, www.pcbs.gov.ps/Portals/_pcbs/PressRelease/English_Report.pdf
4) WV JWG Assessment & Design Report for Nutrition Pilot Project, June 2009
5) The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, www.b’tselem.org
UPDATE:
Sharouq has recently undergone one eye surgery in February 2011, financed by UNRWA and coordinated by World Vision. She will undergo another eye surgery in March 2011, which Sharouq and her family hopes will restore much of her eyesight. World Vision continues to visit Sharouq and her family, offering support and small gifts, and the World Vision staff and Sharouq\'s family remain hopeful for the future.
The Bedouin community in Masafer Bani Naim consists of about 75 families with an average household size of six, including parents and children. Sharouq is one of these children– a 14-year-old who looks much younger. She is very small for her age and has sad brown eyes, glimpsed on the rare occasions when she looks up and makes eye contact.
Malnutrition is globally the most important risk factor for illness and death, contributing to more than half of all child deaths worldwideAfflicted with rheumatism and severe malnutrition, the simplest actions that come naturally to others are often impossible for Sharouq. Walking is difficult because of her rheumatism. She has not attended school since the third grade, because it hurts too badly to make the hour-long walk to school. Sharouq is blind in one eye and partly blind in the other due to the medicine she has to take, when her family manages to buy it. And what little she can see is from the vantage point of someone much younger.
The Bedouin communities in this area are living in very poor conditions, without water or electricity. Many do not have livestock or a means of making a living. Poverty is becoming an inherited disease here.
About 80% of these Bedouin community residents primarily depend on the agricultural sector, while 15% depend on the Israeli labour market, and 5% on governmental or other employment. Available grazing land is declining due to land closures and confiscation by Israeli authorities, as well as drought during the past few years.
Sharouq shares a tent with her three younger brothers and three sisters, and her parents. They own one donkey and a few chickens. Sharouq’s mother, Jawaher, tries to stay strong for her children, but even so her despair is evident. She is desperate for her daughter Sharouq to undergo surgery that will help her to see again. The family has asked for assistance, but still needs US$2,500 to give their daughter this chance.
I want to get better. I want to read, but I can’t see. I want to go back to school but it’s far, and I get tired walking“We live off tea and bread. What can I do? Potatoes, tomatoes, we have no money to get it - it doesn’t matter if it is expensive or not,” says Sharouq’s 32-year-old mother Jawaher who gave birth to her daughter when she was just 18.
Sharouq’s one wish is to not be sick anymore. “I want to get better. I want to read, but I can’t see. I want to go back to school but it’s far, and I get tired walking.”
Poor access and quality of maternal child health care and services are a major concern in the occupied Palestinian territories. Access is hindered by the lack of transportation or distant locations of clinics. Awareness by mothers on proper health practices is often lacking or inaccurate.
Because this family lives so far from health care facilities, they have to think twice before seeking medical attention. When a scorpion bit four-year-old Raghad while she was sleeping, Jawaher waited many hours before taking her to the hospital, hoping she would recover and the hour-long journey to the nearest hospital would prove unnecessary. The nearest hospital is in Bani Naim, and Jawaher and her children ride their one donkey as far as they can during the hour-long journey and walk the rest of the way. “I want the surgery so that I can get better and play with my brothers and sisters,” says Sharouq.
Most of the children suffer from anemia and stunting, due to the lack of proper nutrition and the lack of necessary medication, which they can not affordHaya Helal is a Programme Officer for World Vision in East Hebron who works to help Sharouq and her family and others like them. “Because of the poor health status of children in Bani Naim, there is a need for immediate intervention in terms of better health services, improved conditions and hygiene, access to health services, as well as to better living conditions in terms of basic services which affect health, such as water, toilets, etc, which all families in Masafer Bani Naim have no access to”, says Haya Helal.
“We have been supporting these families for the past two years, yet their need is still greater than what we can meet. Most of the children suffer from anemia and stunting, due to the lack of proper nutrition and the lack of necessary medication, which they can not afford,” he adds.
Sharouq’s father has been unemployed for the past five years, as he was denied a permit to enter Israel and work, where job opportunities are greater and more lucrative. About 55% of households in the occupied Palestinian territories formerly depended on employment in Israeli areas, which is no longer an option due to the increased restrictions on freedom of movement by the Israeli occupation.
In the occupied Palestinian territories, two of the main causes of malnutrition are insufficient health services and household food security, including access to clean drinking water. For Sharouq and her siblings, limited diet, lack of access to clean drinking water, and lack of sufficient health care all contribute to their state of malnutrition and vitamin deficiency.
“My children’s dream is to have food,” says Sharouq’s mother sadly.
More than 70% of households do not have consistent food consumption throughout the year and must reduce the quantity and quality of their meals. As a coping mechanism, many households become more reliant on low-cost items, such as bread, oil, tea, thyme, and others. “Sharouq’s rheumatism began when she was one year old. You can look at my children, you can see the effect. If they had food, they wouldn’t be like this,” adds Sharouq’s mother.
My children’s dream is to have foodFor Sharouq’s family of ten, water is a luxury. They shower when there is water available, and their small, mobile toilet standing next to their tent is a donation from a local organisation. When they have the money, they buy tank water or depend on untreated cisterns from the village nearby, carrying it home by donkey. “We need two hours to get water from the well,” says Jawaher.
According to reports by Israeli civil society organisation B’Tselem, Israel holds almost complete control of the main water source in the West Bank, using 80% percent of the production for its needs, and the remaining 20% for the communities of the occupied Palestinian territories. Almost 9% of Palestinians in the West Bank (191,000 persons) live in communities that are not connected to a running-water system. Another 190,000 live in communities in which the water supplied by the system is limited and does not reach all residential areas.
“Poor health status among infants and children in the targeted communities is also related to mother’s lack of knowledge and malpractices mainly associated with infant feeding, newborn care and care during illness,” says World Vision’s Nutrition and Health Coordinator Hana Rabadi.
“World Vision responded to this need by connecting with mothers at a household level. Shortly after our intervention, it was noticed that many of the mothers’ nutritional and health practices improved. In the future, we hope to be able to expand our work to include more areas and more households all over the Palestinian territories.”
Dr. Abed Rabo Manasra, the Head of the Board of Directors for the Red Crescent Clinic in Bani Naim, Hebron, says that health in the rural areas is deteriorating, especially in Hebron. “Sixty to seventy percent of people in the rural areas of Hebron have health insurance, but there is not enough assistance from the government or local health organisations because they don’t provide all the medications required, especially for major illnesses.”
He continues, “Because unemployment is so high, about 52 percent of families are not able to afford the necessary medicine and medical equipment. Hence, there is a great need to invest more in the health sector, especially in terms of treatment and health services.”
In a population where about 40% of residents are children under five and women of child-bearing age, maternal and child health is crucial to the present and future health of Palestinians. Despite the presence of health facilities in many areas, these services are limited due to the vast amount of people they serve and in many cases, problems of understaffing or limited scope of services and capacity-building for staff.
“In the winter, it’s very cold. We try to save food. When we got the kitchen supplies from World Vision, we stopped burning the animal waste in a pit like we used to, to cook the food,” says Sharouq’s mother of one initiative by World Vision where 65 East Hebron Bedouin families were given kitchenware and equipment.
World Vision continues to support families like Sharouq’s by arranging counselling and training for households, distributing hygiene kits and information, empowering communities in child and maternal health, opening new clinics, and strengthening the capacity of health care centres. World Vision is also working on health campaigns and building awareness in health, specifically maternal and child health, with the Ministries of Education and Health.
World Vision staff in Hebron are also giving of their own food and clothes to Sharouq and her family and the other Bedouin families in the area, hoping this will give them further comfort.
This help and sponsorship is making a difference, but it is a drop in the ocean. So much more needs to be done to give families income generating opportunities and the chance to provide for themselves– not just for the present, but for their children’s future.
Sources:
1) UNICEF, www.unicef.org
2) Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), www.pcbs.gov.ps
3) Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics Palestinian Family Health Survey, www.pcbs.gov.ps/Portals/_pcbs/PressRelease/English_Report.pdf
4) WV JWG Assessment & Design Report for Nutrition Pilot Project, June 2009
5) The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, www.b’tselem.org
UPDATE:
Sharouq has recently undergone one eye surgery in February 2011, financed by UNRWA and coordinated by World Vision. She will undergo another eye surgery in March 2011, which Sharouq and her family hopes will restore much of her eyesight. World Vision continues to visit Sharouq and her family, offering support and small gifts, and the World Vision staff and Sharouq\'s family remain hopeful for the future.
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