Through word of mouth, Jonathan Miles learns of children in Syria, Iraq and Gaza who need Israeli medical care, and coordinates with doctors on both sides. Miles is the Director of Shevet Achim, a Jerusalem-based Christian Zionist organization that helps children from Gaza, Iraq and Syria come to Israel with a parent or other caregiver for cardiac surgery. For example,
“Since 2003, several hundred Kurdish children have been brought over ..., I go into these places and get to know the people, something Israeli citizens cannot do.”
Entry visas are expedited by the Israeli Interior Ministry in coordination with Shevet Achim. The families fly in through Jordan and from there to the Children’s Hospital of the Chaim Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan —home-base of the the Safra International Congenital Heart Center— or to Jerusalem’s Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center, a 2005 Nobel Peace Prize nominee,
in acknowledgment of its equal treatment of all patients, regardless of ethnic and religious differences, and efforts to build bridges to peace.[12][13]
The families of the patients contribute whatever they can, even if it’s practically nothing, and the rest of costs, including their housing and other necessities while there, are covered by the hospitals and by Shevet Achim’s global partnerships with other NGOs.
Dr. David Mishali, head of International Congenital Heart Surgery at Sheba’s Safra Children’s Hospital, has himself
treated close to 100 Kurdish patients so far. The youngest was a couple of weeks old and the oldest 16 or 17 years old.
“They are coming all the time. They are taken care of like regular patients; we make no distinction between them and our Israeli and the Palestinian patients,” says Mishali...
Two volunteer translators help Mishali and his team of nurses, physicians and surgeons communicate in a chain from Hebrew to Arabic to Kurdish.
Mishali and his staff keep in close touch with the children’s primary-care or referring doctors at home via telephone in English, WhatsApp and/or email. This communication can be critical because
“...these doctors know the situation of each patient and can tell me, for example, that this patient can come in two years for the second stage of treatment, but this patient won’t ever be able to come back and needs the full correction at once.”
In making treatment decisions, the Israeli doctors also must take into consideration the level of follow-up medical care available in the home country.
“We usually have several treatment options and have to choose the best considering all the factors,” explains Mishali...
...“I was not afraid to come to Israel, even though I was warned I could lose my Syrian passport,” [one Kurdish mother said.]...
“Our volunteers, predominantly Christians, want to build bridges between Israel and its neighbors,” says Miles.
See also
How Leonard Cohen Helped Start the RoadToRecovery Israeli-Palestinian Medical Travel Volunteers
and
Jordanians, Palestinians & Israelis save the river & build the peace. Should we do less?
and others diaries tagged ArabIsraeliCooperation...