Looking for Trouble

Guest blog by Gerri Haynes: Washington physicians group heading for Gaza again

(For the next several days, Gerri Haynes, a former president of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, will be sending back reports from inside blockaded Gaza. As she did twice before, Gerri has organized a team of doctors and other health care providers to work in hospitals and clinics in Gaza in an effort to directly help the people there and to bring attention to the ongoing humanitarian crisis that the Israeli blockade has created.)

A third delegation of physicians and other health care providers from Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility is in Jerusalem on the way to Gaza to offer medical care and consultation.

It’s cold in Jerusalem now and the streets of East Jerusalem are nearly empty. We will spend today, Saturday, meeting medical care providers and medical school instructors here in Jerusalem, then drive to Gaza early tomorrow morning.

Our host in Gaza is the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme and, at their request, we are bringing them a supply of therapy toys for the children. Kara Mochan, nurse practitioner of Seattle, assembled a mountain of grouped toys to be used in helping children process their life in Gaza.

These children are all affected by living under external occupation, limited access to food and clean water, the threat and actuality of ongoing attacks by air and sea, and the reality that invasion by military troops is a constant possibility. Sleep disturbances and difficulty learning are common. The level of childhood chronic malnutrition in Gaza has risen to 10.2 percent.

Much of the available food comes through the dangerous tunnel system between Egypt and southern Gaza.

The WPSR group will focus on providing care to children and adults in clinics and hospitals – working along side their Palestinian colleagues.

Last May, physicians from WPSR initiated some surgical staging procedures on children in Gaza City and this visit will provide the opportunity to complete those procedures.

Thanks to all of the people in Washington state who helped to provide therapy toys for the children of Gaza!