Bill Risebero
brings news from Bethlehem
Through its giving programme, the Parish supports the work of BASR, the Bethlehem Arab Society for Rehabilitation. Three recent events give some idea of the wide range of BASR’s activity and influence. Rima Canawati, of BASR’s Vision Rehabilitation Department, was given an international award recognising her ‘exceptional’ work with young, visually impaired people. At the same time BASR helped set up an international project to benefit deaf people in Palestine.
And Saleh Issa, an innocent man with an intellectual disability, was shot by the Occupation forces; he was rescued by Red Crescent ambulance crews who themselves came under fire; his injuries were severe enough to require specialist treatment at BASR’s hospital.
So while BASR seeks to develop medical policy at national and international level, it is also a medical facility in its own right, continuing to excel in the treatment of the physical and mental traumas all too prevalent in Palestine today. Its philosophy is based on its insistence that people’s lives matter, whoever they are. ‘Every patient’, says Edmund Shehadeh, the Director, ’is first and foremost a human being’.
Women and children are the focus of the centre`s work, but no-one, of whatever gender, age, race or belief, is turned away. This means that demand exceeds the hospital`s ability to deal with it. BASR’s holistic approach is born partly out of this necessity: lack of funds encourages the involvement of the patients’ families, and this pays great dividends in helping to integrate them back into society, which is the ultimate aim. There are also educational programmes which attempt to deal with illness through health education and community support. Paediatric follow-up services, a social services unit giving support to families, community-based day-care, and vocational training all play a part.
We must carry on singing Christmas carols, with their touch of sentimentality (they sing them in Bethlehem, too), but we must not forget how difficult, even dangerous, Palestine can be for those who continue to live their lives there. The fact that they do so positively I find profoundly moving: that there are so many people there who insist on finding the best in others. In a badly injured, traumatised young girl, for example, being given the personal strength to go back to study, to become, perhaps, a doctor herself. ‘Empowerment’, says Edmund, ‘more than Charity’.
If you want to know more about BASR, look at their website basr.org. If you would like to give a donation, or if you would like to pay a (warmly welcomed) visit, contact Edmund on [email protected]