Download Israel/Rambam/Peres Centre/Insulin for Life

Israel/Rambam/Peres Centre/Insulin for Life
Australia/Ramallah/Bethlehem/donated diabetes supplies project.
Dr Hasan Eideh (left), Ron Raab, Professor Ze’ev Hochberg
Palestinians with diabetes who receive strips from IFL
Following a visit in 2006 to the Rambam Hospital Diabetes Centre, Haifa, at the invitation of
Professor Ze’ev Hochberg, Director, I met Dr Hasan Eideh, a Palestinian physician from Ramallah.
He has a Peres Centre for Peace scholarship to train at the Rambam Hospital. He returns to Ramallah
each weekend.
Professor Hochberg and Dr Eideh asked me if Insulin for Life Australia could donate some blood
glucose monitoring strips, as a trial project, to be sent to him at Rambam, Haifa, and he would
deliver these strips, for Palestinian children and some adults, in Ramallah. Supplies are now being
donated regularly by Insulin for Life Australia.
Twenty children from Ramallah will also visit the Rambam Diabetes Center. These children will be
educated by the nurses, dietitians and social workers. This will also help them “feel they're not alone
in the world with this disease.”
Type 1 diabetes requires regular blood glucose testing for good control. Without such control,
diabetes can result in blindness, kidney disease, amputations and other complications. IFL has
recently signed an agreement with the Australian Government/Diabetes Australia to receive in-date,
and no longer needed test strips. These would otherwise be destroyed. These become available for
example due to shelf life shorter than what can be distributed to centres throughout Australia, but
can be used in IFL donation projects.
A parallel project involves sending currently small amounts of strips for use by Palestinian families
in Bethlehem. For example, one case involves a family with three children, all of whom have type I
diabetes, which requires multiple daily injections and at least a basic level of regular blood glucose
testing. This particular project is being coordinated by a lawyer, active in the German Lutheran
Church, which supports projects in Jerusalem. She is also involved professionally in World War 2
restitution cases. Her husband is the Chief Middle East Editor of the Frankfurter Allemagne, the
largest daily newspaper in Germany.
This project has a good “feel” about it. A Palestinian physician, routinely travelling and training in
Israel and returning to his own community in Ramallah regularly; good personal relationships; the
involvement of an Australian non-government organization, Insulin for Life Australia, in sending
donated blood glucose test strips, as part of the overall medical treatment, through a major Israeli
Hospital, and then to Ramallah; as well as facilitation by a church group in Jerusalem, which
contributes to the transport and handling costs of sending these donated supplies.
The linkages are Australia, Israel/Rambam Hospital, Haifa/ Peres Centre Israel, Palestinian
physician and hospital in Ramallah.
Further linkages are possible through the Insulin for Life affiliated organizations in Europe and the
USA.
Ron Raab B.Ec, OAM
President, Insulin for Life Australia www.insulinforlife.org
Past Vice-President (2000-2006), International Diabetes Federation www.idf.org