By Smadar Shiffman | Project Leader, Volunteer
Dear Supporters and Friends,
This quarter we were able to fund 34 minibus trips (14 patients and escorts per trip) from Gaza to hospitals in Jerusalem—thank you for your support! We are continuing to experience an increase in the number of passengers that need our help to travel to and from hospitals in Israel. For example, over 300 patients sign up weekly for our rides from the Erez crossing alone.
In March, our volunteers participated in two visits to Palestinian villages in the West Bank. Women volunteers visited the women of At-Tuwani, a village south of Hebron. In this visit, participants heard from Hafez, an informal village leader, about efforts to sustain non-violent resistance in the midst of provocations from a nearby settlement. Participants also heard from Kifach, a local woman, about the Two-Neighbors project, where she and other local women cooperate with Israeli women to create fashion based on traditional embroidery. The visit ended with a wonderful lunch that Kifach prepared.
A second group of volunteers visited the village Shuqba located north west of Ramallah. This was a condolences visit with the family of a young patient who passed away recently. Our volunteers drove the patient to Tel-Hashomer Hospital many times. The bereaved parents expressed their gratitude for the essential transportation help that they received from our organization and thanked the drivers that frequently drove them to the hospital. One volunteer, Bat-Ami, recalled the warm reception at that visit. She remembered the words of the bereaved father: “I told everyone in the village, family members, acquaintances who came to console us: As soon as you cross the border, you meet people that are just like us!” The family described the devotion of the medical staff, and appreciated the friendship they established with other patients at the hospital and with the volunteer drivers. That same week Bat-Ami witnessed a silent encounter, which came about when she dropped off a child patient and his mother at Tel-Hashomer hospital. The mother had difficulties controlling her child, who ran out of the car alone. A police officer approached the child, smiled at him, stroked his head softly, and calmed him down. Bat-Ami acknowledged that the trips to the hospitals created opportunities for small personal encounters between Israelis and Palestinians, without politics.
Another volunteer, Talia, described her experience driving a patient on Valentine’s Day. It was 5:40 AM, still completely dark as Talia approached the Na’alin crossing, listening to love songs on the radio. H., a six year old patient that wore a bean hat, gloves, and part of a skeleton-costume (white bones on a black background) entered the car with his father. They left their home in Ras Karkar at 4:40 AM, and traveled with her to the oncology department at Tel-Hashomer hospital. H. was diagnosed with bone cancer when he was 4 years old, and had been traveling from the village to Tel-Hashomer every three to four weeks for two years to receive chemotherapy and radiation treatment. H. had undergone two surgeries, but was still ill and his care team contemplated what care they should deliver next. That day H. had a cold and coughed long coughs into his gloves. He whispered to his father and looked at Talia through the mirror. The father said “the boy wants to sleep and is saying smicha (Hebrew for blanket)”. Talia pointed to a fleece blanket that was visible in the trunk from the inside. “Not smicha, slicha (Hebrew for sorry)!” The father laughed and corrected his mistake: “The boy said sorry, for sleeping in your car, I have a ‘British’ prince-of-a-boy, he has good manners from traveling so much”. “Sweetheart, do you know it is Valentine’s Day today?” Talia asked the prince-with-skeleton-fingers. The father and son whispered again. “He is asking if today everyone loves everyone”, as simple as that. The car passed by a road-side grove, and it started raining. Talia turned on the windshield wipers. “Yes sweetheart, everyone loves everyone today” she answered quietly, slowed down, took off her glasses and wiped-dry her eyes.
We are encouraged by these heart-warming personal interactions between patients and volunteers and hope to hear many more similar stories.
Grateful,
Yuval Roth and The Road to Recovery US volunteer team
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
