Find the Need and Help Fill It

Ramadan is a month of giving; a time for one to reflect on ones blessings and practice compassion towards the unfortunate. Many of the needy receive support and charity in several forms during the month. Some people receive financial support, some clothing, and others food. When ANERA identified the need, USAID chose, among their many gifts to the Palestinian people, to provide $50,000 worth of new furniture for the newly built Kidney Dialysis Unit at Jericho Government Hospital. The furniture arrived, coincidentally, just in time for Ramadan. The Hospital itself was recently rehabilitated by ANERA under the Emergency Water and Sanitation and Other Infrastructure (EWAS II) Program funded by USAID. Jericho Hospital is a major health facility providing health care services to thousands of Palestinians. The rehabilitation project cost more than $3.2 million, and included the renovation of the internal sewage collection system, the ventilation and air conditioning, and the hot and cold water systems, in addition to the installation of a new sewage treatment unit, as well as external works and the construction of a new building to house the Kidney Dialysis Unit and staff lodging. The new Kidney Dialysis Unit is the biggest transformation the Hospitals staff and patients have ever seen. The old unit consisted of one room with five dialysis beds. It was deteriorated and extremely small, barely accommodating the patients and nurses. Privacy was not an option. Mr. Mohammad Al-Fhood, a patient who has been receiving treatment at Jericho Hospital for eight years now says, The past years I spent in the old unit were horrible; the room was tiny; we had no privacy and we couldnt even have any visitors. During the intervention ANERA realized that the Hospital was not likely to receive any furniture and that it was imperative to replace the old, torn, rusted and extremely uncomfortable kidney dialysis beds. USAID quickly approved the request and allocated a budget. ANERAs EWAS II Chief of Party Eng. Jamal Al-Aref expressed it best: We believed that in light of the formidable work accomplished at the Hospital, adding furniture would certainly be the icing on the cake. And so, not only were nine new kidney dialysis beds procured, but 175 other items were also purchased for the new unit, including chairs, tables, desks, cabinets, lockers, a medicine refrigerator, a satellite dish and four televisions and satellite receivers. These items will greatly benefit the patients during their long hours of treatment. Having to adapt ones schedule to the treatment and sit for five hours of treatment three times a week can be exhausting and sometimes very depressing. Now the patients can relax in comfortable, adjustable beds, in an air-conditioned room, and pass away the time watching television or talking to visitors. Nurse Dia Hijazi, Head of the Kidney Dialysis Unit, sees her patients regularly. She has known some of them for more than eight years and has grown to love them as her family. We see these patients more than we see our own families and they have grown so close to our hearts, she explains. Nurse Dia was delighted to see her patients transfer from a claustrophobic, smelly, uncomfortable, poorly air-conditioned room into a new, spacious unit equipped with comfortable beds and entertainment systems they can all enjoy. They are very happy to watch their favorite Ramadan shows, which is great because it helps pass the time.