Total Target : $400,000
No. of contributors : 25
Less: Pledges/Contr. Recd. : $148,000 as of 8 November 2007
Balance Requested :$252,000

The Welfare Association continues to receive donations for Al-Ahli ArabHospital in Gaza in an attempt to help support needs of the hospital affected by the recurrent violence in the City. The campaign which has been launched early this year aims to secure US$400 thousand to procure the urgently needed mammogram machine, renovate the cancer clinic and the burns treatment unit, provide food baskets, support additional staff salaries, provide medical supplies and fund the mobile medical units attached to the hospital.

Because of its location in the centre of the City, Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, which was the first NGO hospital to operate in Gaza, is able to receive casualties from a number of heavily populated neighborhoods. It works closely with the Palestinian Ministry of Health, so when there is a demand for patient care, Al-Ahli Arab Hospitalis the first to receive the overflow from the government hospital in the central area of Gaza.

During the years of the first Intifada, the Hospital was often swamped with wounded victims of the violence. Sometimes there were so many casualties that staff were forced to treat patients on the floor. As a result of the second Intifada, the Hospital has again been in great demand.

Because of the ongoing conflicts in the Gaza Strip, Al-AhliArab Hospitalhas suffered with its community throughout the years and the crisis is worsening by the day. Every day, the hospital contends with Intifada-related violence and military checkpoints as it aims to serve Gaza residents. Invasions in specific parts of Gazaregularly continue to cause problems for hospital staff who sometimes have to drive through increased military checkpoints. The conflict also has affected the hospital's mobile outreach clinics, which serve outlying villages. Soldiers will not allow Al Ahli Arab Hospital to drive ambulances into these places, so hospital staff members are obliged to pick up patients outside the villages instead for its mobile outreach clinics. The clinics mainly help women because most men are not allowed to leave their villages.

Reports paint a bleak picture of conditions in the Palestinian territories - particularly in Gaza Strip, home to about 1.3 million people. A reduction in international aid has restricted the flow of people, money and goods in and out of Gaza where poor funding is evolving into an acute humanitarian health crisis witnessed through the deterioration of the Palestinian health system. The possibility of increased casualties raises concern over the sector's capacity to respond to large numbers of injured patients. All Gazan MoH hospitals have suffered shortage of everything leaving the public health system in the city running down fast under the dual pressure of aid cutoffs and the closing of the crossing point with Israel. Some of the services provided including diagnostic and outpatient services have been reduced; some cases of elective surgeries are being referred to NGO hospitals.

For Donations:

Welfare Association
Arab Bank - Shmisani Branch
Amman - Jordan
Account No.:0118 - 9917 - 501 J.D.
Account No.:0118 - 9917 - 511 $US