Bill Risebero reports on an inspiring initiative in the Bethlehem of today.
The ‘little town’ we sing about at Christmas is a place of peace. But in the present-day city of Bethlehem, in the West Bank, there is little tranquillity. Under military occupation, local services and infrastructure are severely limited, as are freedom of movement and self-expression, and there is the constant threat of physical and psychological violence.
Deprivation, poverty, alienation, stress and trauma have deep human effects. Death from cardiovascular disease is prevalent among Palestinian adults, many children suffer badly from visual impairment, and many people endure physical disabilities.
The Bethlehem Arab Society for Rehabilitation (BASR) began life in 1960 as a Cheshire Home. It has developed into a vital provider of medical and social services in the West Bank. Catering for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in an already disadvantaged society, it nevertheless offers its services to all, regardless of gender, age, religion or social class. Closely involving local families and communities, it offers diagnosis and treatment, including surgery, and a wide range of services ranging from the educational to the recreational, and the psychosocial to the vocational.
Last year the centre performed 3,488 major operations, and many other minor procedures. Most numerous were ophthalmic, reconstructive and orthopaedic surgeries. And there has been a big step forward in addressing the problem of heart disease. With the support of physicians from Imperial College London and elsewhere, a new Cardiac Unit has been set up, to provide cardiology and heart surgery.
Medical intervention is not the only way BASR has of addressing local problems. In partnership with other local organisations, both private and public, it runs summer camps for children, and vocational training schemes, and helps with employability skills and job placements. Through its Community-based Rehabilitation programme (CBR), it has helped families and local communities to develop their own approaches to the problems of living, especially those of disability.
Three recent success stories give a sense of BASR’s range of activity. One 38-year-old woman from a highly deprived village surrounded by Israeli settlements, had grown up isolated and alienated and lived a life of frustration and distress. BASR’s CBR team, by involving her gradually in interactive sessions, helped to turn her life around, so that she was able to become a spokesperson for people with disabilities. ‘My message to people with disabilities’ she says, ‘is: have faith in yourselves; do not let anything put you down’.
A 16-year-old girl, with severe, chronic visual impairment, has benefited from BASR’s Vision Rehabilitation department, to the extent of taking her place in a mainstream school. With the aid of optical devices and, crucially, the support of those around her, she has every hope of an excellent academic career.
Recently, a woman from India, on a pilgrimage to Mecca, Medina and Palestine, was taken ill in Bethlehem and was rushed to BASR. In the Cardiac Unit, opened just two months earlier, she was immediately diagnosed with a myocardial infarction. Operated on and monitored by BASR for four days, her life was saved. Afterwards, her husband wrote: ‘…from the bottom of our heart we thank you for the kindness showed, and I thank the Almighty for everything. Alhamdulillah.’
The Bethlehem we celebrate at Christmas is a place not only of peace, but also of hope. The work of BASR shows us that though peace is in short supply in today’s Bethlehem, hope certainly is not.
Our parish Giving programme includes support for BASR, and some of the money from our Christmas collections will go to it. Several people from the congregation have visited BASR and we hope others will do so too. If you would like more information about BASR, you can contact Christine or me on [email protected], or you can visit its website at www.basr.org. Better still, if you would like to send your Christmas greetings, or make your own donation, or arrange a visit to BASR itself, you can make contact at [email protected].
BASR
Bill Risebero