Location: Nablus District in the West Bank

Situation:

Present in the Palestinian Territories since 1995, Doctors of the World (DoW) runs activities in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank. The attack of January 2009 and the reinforced blockade made daily life more and more difficult.
On the day of the cease-fire, the 17th January, Doctors of the World’s French and Spanish volunteers were finally allowed into the Gaza strip to support out local teams already present there and to come in aid of the victims of the Israeli attacks.
In this context of increasing poverty, DoW UK works on providing health care, especially for the most vulnerable population.

Activities:

In co-operation with the Palestinian Ministry of Health and in partnership with several local services, DoW works to improve the treatment of psychological problems, through:
• A de-stigmatisation campaign amongst the Palestinian population (leaflets, adverts, TV and radio programmes);
• Supervision of a programme identifying psychological problems in children (theatre in schools) which has been transferred to a local partner;
• Support for therapeutic activities including literary cafés, a ‘Listening Point’ and two psychological Consultation services in a Nablus clinic;
• Technical support to primary healthcare staff and mental health professionals (training courses and seminars on mental health).

Outlook:

Continuing the activities and setting up two medical psychology community centres (Nablus and Jenin) in partnership with the Palestinian Ministry of Health and partially funded by the French Development Agency.

Project start date: 2003

End date: 2009