In August 2011, there were 178 terrorist attacks carried out against Israel - a significant increase from the 53 that occurred in July.
The data was published in a monthly report released by the Israel Security Agency.
134 of the terrorist events were rocket or mortar attacks.
The main source of the increase was from the Gaza Strip, from which 135 attacks originated in August, compared to 20 in July.
The most noteworthy terrorist attack that occurred last month took place on August 18 on the Israel-Egypt border north of Eilat. Eight Israelis (six civilians and two security forces members) were killed in that attack and 29 were wounded.
An increase in terrorist attacks also occurred in Judea and Samaria, where 30 attacks occurred in August, compared to 25 in July.
In Jerusalem, there was a slight decrease, with six attacks in August, compared to eight in July.
On August 29, a Palestinian seized control of a taxi cab in Tel Aviv and ran into a number of people. He also stabbed people before being arrested.
One Israeli was killed when a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip exploded in Be'er Sheva on August 20.
Overall, nine Israelis were killed and 55 wounded in terrorist attacks in August.
During August, 145 rockets and 46 mortars were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip, compared to 20 rockets and two mortars in July.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Listen to Facts Not to Polemics
Time after time, I am asked to comment on an article from a newspaper, a lecture, a statement or action undertaken by those with agendas against the existence of the Jewish State of Israel.
Yet Edinburgh students mount no demonstrations and call for no boycotts against Libya, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Iran. They prefer to make false accusations against one of the world's freest countries, the only country in the Middle East that has taken in Darfur refugees, the only country in the Middle East that gives refuge to gay men and women, the only country in the Middle East that protects the Baha'is.... Need I go on? The imbalance is perceptible, and it sheds no credit on anyone who voted for this boycott.
I ask you to show some common sense. Get information from the Israeli embassy. Ask for some speakers. Listen to more than one side. Do not make your minds up until you have given a fair hearing to both parties. You have a duty to your students, and that is to protect them from one-sided argument. They are not at university to be propagandized. And they are certainly not there to be tricked into anti-Semitism by punishing one country among all the countries of the world, which happens to be the only Jewish state. If there had been a single Jewish state in the 1930s (which, sadly, there was not), don't you think Adolf Hitler would have decided to boycott it? Of course he would, and he would not have stopped there. Your generation has a duty to ensure that the perennial racism of anti-Semitism never sets down roots among you. Today, however, there are clear signs that it has done so and is putting down more. You have a chance to avert a very great evil, simply by using reason and a sense of fair play. Please tell me that this makes sense. I have given you some of the evidence. It's up to you to find out more. "
His full letter can be read at http://www.israelifrontline.com/2011/08/scottish-professor-responds-to-boycott.html
So often, the comments made have NO basis in fact but provide an emotional message to the uninformed. Recently, the students of Edinburgh University "decided" to boycott all things Israel. Again the students are throwing out words like "Nazism" and "Apartheid", which goes to show just how ignorant they are of the facts. More worryingly is that if these arew the thoughts processes of the leaders of future, heaven help the rest of the population.
An alumni of the University, a non Jew and an accredited expert inn Middle Eastern affairs has written an open letter to the students which has messages not just for the students but for the world at large.
He writes "University is supposed to be about learning to use your brain, to think rationally, to examine evidence, to reach conclusions based on solid evidence, to compare sources, to weigh up one view against one or more others. If the best Edinburgh can now produce are students who have no idea how to do any of these things, then the future is bleak. I do not object to well documented criticism of Israel. I do object when supposedly intelligent people single the Jewish state out above states that are horrific in their treatment of their populations. We are going through the biggest upheaval in the Middle East since the 7th and 8th centuries, and it's clear that Arabs and Iranians are rebelling against terrifying regimes that fight back by killing their own citizens. Israel citizens, Jews and Arabs alike, do not rebel (though they are free to protest).Yet Edinburgh students mount no demonstrations and call for no boycotts against Libya, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Iran. They prefer to make false accusations against one of the world's freest countries, the only country in the Middle East that has taken in Darfur refugees, the only country in the Middle East that gives refuge to gay men and women, the only country in the Middle East that protects the Baha'is.... Need I go on? The imbalance is perceptible, and it sheds no credit on anyone who voted for this boycott.
I ask you to show some common sense. Get information from the Israeli embassy. Ask for some speakers. Listen to more than one side. Do not make your minds up until you have given a fair hearing to both parties. You have a duty to your students, and that is to protect them from one-sided argument. They are not at university to be propagandized. And they are certainly not there to be tricked into anti-Semitism by punishing one country among all the countries of the world, which happens to be the only Jewish state. If there had been a single Jewish state in the 1930s (which, sadly, there was not), don't you think Adolf Hitler would have decided to boycott it? Of course he would, and he would not have stopped there. Your generation has a duty to ensure that the perennial racism of anti-Semitism never sets down roots among you. Today, however, there are clear signs that it has done so and is putting down more. You have a chance to avert a very great evil, simply by using reason and a sense of fair play. Please tell me that this makes sense. I have given you some of the evidence. It's up to you to find out more. "
His full letter can be read at http://www.israelifrontline.com/2011/08/scottish-professor-responds-to-boycott.html
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
The Facts about Water in the Middle East
Complaints by anti Israel writers continue to point the finger at Israel (who else?) for the problems of water supplies to the Palestinians. Yet nearly all these claims are never backed up by facts. So let’s look at the recent comments and the real situation.
Claim
a) Israel’s ‘discriminatory policies’ are to blame for the lack of water in Palestinian society.
b) Israel uses the Joint Israeli Palestinian Water Committee (JWC) to veto and delay Palestinian water projects.
c) Israel illegally exploits 90% of the shared water sources.
d) Israeli is stealing water and destroying of water wells and treatment plants.
These claims are full of distortions, outright lies and false accusations, and yet another proof of the PA’s intransigence.
To answer these claims, Missing Peace,a European group www.missingpeace.eu obtained authentic papers documenting meetings of the Joint Israeli Palestinian Water Committee (JWC), and correspondence between Colonel Avi Shalev, head of the International relations branch of COGAT, and Dr.Atilli, the Palestinian representative. These documents paint an entirely different picture. In fact, the Palestinian Authority has been sabotaging the two-state solution by preventing the development of an independent water infrastructure for the future Palestinian state.
Claim - Israel delayed and vetoed Palestinian water projects
Facts
a) Article 40 (14) in the Oslo Accords clearly states that all JWC decisions about water projects in the West Bank need mutual agreement. Once approved, JWC projects for the territories under Palestinian control (Areas A and B) do not need any further Israeli involvement.
b) Projects in Area C, where Israel is in control, need approval from the Israeli Civil Administration (ICA). Since 2000 the PWA submitted 76 requests for permits to the office of the ICA. Subsequently 73 permits were issued by ICA and three denied because there was no master plan.
c) In a letter of June 8 2009, Shalev responded to Atilli’s complaint that ICA did not honor a PWA request to issue 12 of these permits. Shalev wrote that these permits had already been issued in 2001, and that ICA wondered why the PWA did not execute these projects.
d) Another 44 JWC-approved projects, the majority in Areas A and B, like the construction of a waste water treatment plant (WWTP) in Jenin that received approval in 2008 - have not been implemented. The German government has even withdraw a plan to build a WWTP in Tulkarm when it concluded that the PWA could not handle the project.
e) When, back in November 2009, the PWA complained about a lack of funds, the Israeli government offered to finance water projects for Palestinian communities. The PA has yet to respond to this offer.
Claim - Israel allocates only 10% of the shared water sources to the Palestinians.
Facts
a) The water quota for the West Bank were mutually agreed upon in the Oslo Accords and 33% of the water in the aquifers under the West Bank is allocated to the Palestinians.
b) In 1993 the Palestinians could pump up 117 million cubic meters and Israel would provide an additional 31 million. In 2007 200 million cubic meters were allocated to the PA, of which Israel provided 51.8 million. However, of those 200 million cubic meters, only 180 million were actually used.
c) The main reason for this is that the PWA did not implement projects in the Eastern aquifer that would have solved much of the Palestinian water crisis. More than half of the wells approved for exploitation of the Eastern aquifer have still not been drilled. The permits were issued in 2000.
d) In a letter written on April 4, 2001, the civil administration urged the PWA to execute these projects. A letter from June 8 2009 repeated that request.
Claim - Palestinians are limited to an average of just 60 liters per capita per day.
Facts -
In 2009 Atliil’s own PWA published a report that mentioned an average supply of 110 liters per capita per day.
Claim - Israel is stealing water and destroying Palestinian water projects
Fact
a) In fact, Palestinians steal millions of cubic meters of water per year by drilling illegal holes into the water pipes of the Israeli water provider Mekorot. The Civil Authority fixes 600 of these illegal taps each year. Furthermore, since 2008 Israel has asked the PA to re-establish the joint JSET water patrols that fought water theft before the Al Aksa intifada. The PA has refused.
b) Another reason for the loss of water is the poor maintenance of the Palestinian water infrastructure. A staggering 33% of the fresh water supply gets lost because of leaks, theft and poor maintenance.
Lack of Action by PA
Other documents provided solid evidence that the closing of 250 illegal wells was agreed upon in the JWC meetings. For example, minutes of the JWC meeting on November 13, 2007 show a consensus decision to destroy ‘illegal drillings and connections.’ Nevertheless, Atilli acted as if he never attended these meetings or co-signed the joint decisions.
He even had the gall to write urgent appeals to the international community as soon as ICA, after numerous appeals to the PWA to follow up on the agreed closure of illegal wells, finally closed those wells.
These are only few examples of the shocking way the Palestinian Authority neglected the basic needs of its citizens and cynically uses water as a weapon in a PR campaign against Israel. It shows that, contrary to reports dealing with progress in state building, the PA is far from ready for statehood.
Conclusion
The stubborn refusal to work with Israel on mutual interests like improvement of the water infrastructure, and the way the PA subsequently uses that lack of improvement to demonize Israel, prove that the PA is not interested in the two-state solution, or peace.
In fact, the bid for UN recognition of a state without a peace agreement, and the way the PA deals with Israel regarding water are part of the same campaign. The goal of that campaign is, as Mahmoud Abbas pointed out in his infamous NYT op-ed, the continuation of the conflict by different means.
By now it has become clear that the use of water as weapon is one of those means.
Claim
a) Israel’s ‘discriminatory policies’ are to blame for the lack of water in Palestinian society.
b) Israel uses the Joint Israeli Palestinian Water Committee (JWC) to veto and delay Palestinian water projects.
c) Israel illegally exploits 90% of the shared water sources.
d) Israeli is stealing water and destroying of water wells and treatment plants.
These claims are full of distortions, outright lies and false accusations, and yet another proof of the PA’s intransigence.
To answer these claims, Missing Peace,a European group www.missingpeace.eu obtained authentic papers documenting meetings of the Joint Israeli Palestinian Water Committee (JWC), and correspondence between Colonel Avi Shalev, head of the International relations branch of COGAT, and Dr.Atilli, the Palestinian representative. These documents paint an entirely different picture. In fact, the Palestinian Authority has been sabotaging the two-state solution by preventing the development of an independent water infrastructure for the future Palestinian state.
Claim - Israel delayed and vetoed Palestinian water projects
Facts
a) Article 40 (14) in the Oslo Accords clearly states that all JWC decisions about water projects in the West Bank need mutual agreement. Once approved, JWC projects for the territories under Palestinian control (Areas A and B) do not need any further Israeli involvement.
b) Projects in Area C, where Israel is in control, need approval from the Israeli Civil Administration (ICA). Since 2000 the PWA submitted 76 requests for permits to the office of the ICA. Subsequently 73 permits were issued by ICA and three denied because there was no master plan.
c) In a letter of June 8 2009, Shalev responded to Atilli’s complaint that ICA did not honor a PWA request to issue 12 of these permits. Shalev wrote that these permits had already been issued in 2001, and that ICA wondered why the PWA did not execute these projects.
d) Another 44 JWC-approved projects, the majority in Areas A and B, like the construction of a waste water treatment plant (WWTP) in Jenin that received approval in 2008 - have not been implemented. The German government has even withdraw a plan to build a WWTP in Tulkarm when it concluded that the PWA could not handle the project.
e) When, back in November 2009, the PWA complained about a lack of funds, the Israeli government offered to finance water projects for Palestinian communities. The PA has yet to respond to this offer.
Claim - Israel allocates only 10% of the shared water sources to the Palestinians.
Facts
a) The water quota for the West Bank were mutually agreed upon in the Oslo Accords and 33% of the water in the aquifers under the West Bank is allocated to the Palestinians.
b) In 1993 the Palestinians could pump up 117 million cubic meters and Israel would provide an additional 31 million. In 2007 200 million cubic meters were allocated to the PA, of which Israel provided 51.8 million. However, of those 200 million cubic meters, only 180 million were actually used.
c) The main reason for this is that the PWA did not implement projects in the Eastern aquifer that would have solved much of the Palestinian water crisis. More than half of the wells approved for exploitation of the Eastern aquifer have still not been drilled. The permits were issued in 2000.
d) In a letter written on April 4, 2001, the civil administration urged the PWA to execute these projects. A letter from June 8 2009 repeated that request.
Claim - Palestinians are limited to an average of just 60 liters per capita per day.
Facts -
In 2009 Atliil’s own PWA published a report that mentioned an average supply of 110 liters per capita per day.
Claim - Israel is stealing water and destroying Palestinian water projects
Fact
a) In fact, Palestinians steal millions of cubic meters of water per year by drilling illegal holes into the water pipes of the Israeli water provider Mekorot. The Civil Authority fixes 600 of these illegal taps each year. Furthermore, since 2008 Israel has asked the PA to re-establish the joint JSET water patrols that fought water theft before the Al Aksa intifada. The PA has refused.
b) Another reason for the loss of water is the poor maintenance of the Palestinian water infrastructure. A staggering 33% of the fresh water supply gets lost because of leaks, theft and poor maintenance.
Lack of Action by PA
Other documents provided solid evidence that the closing of 250 illegal wells was agreed upon in the JWC meetings. For example, minutes of the JWC meeting on November 13, 2007 show a consensus decision to destroy ‘illegal drillings and connections.’ Nevertheless, Atilli acted as if he never attended these meetings or co-signed the joint decisions.
He even had the gall to write urgent appeals to the international community as soon as ICA, after numerous appeals to the PWA to follow up on the agreed closure of illegal wells, finally closed those wells.
These are only few examples of the shocking way the Palestinian Authority neglected the basic needs of its citizens and cynically uses water as a weapon in a PR campaign against Israel. It shows that, contrary to reports dealing with progress in state building, the PA is far from ready for statehood.
Conclusion
The stubborn refusal to work with Israel on mutual interests like improvement of the water infrastructure, and the way the PA subsequently uses that lack of improvement to demonize Israel, prove that the PA is not interested in the two-state solution, or peace.
In fact, the bid for UN recognition of a state without a peace agreement, and the way the PA deals with Israel regarding water are part of the same campaign. The goal of that campaign is, as Mahmoud Abbas pointed out in his infamous NYT op-ed, the continuation of the conflict by different means.
By now it has become clear that the use of water as weapon is one of those means.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Don't Bother Me with Facts !!
I always try to talk or write about Israel on the basis of facts, even though for some people these facts disturb their personal agenda. One correspondent, who entered into an e-mail discussion with me on the subject of allocation of water between Israel and the Palestinians, finally ended the discussion by telling me that “I can’t discuss this issue with you any further, you are always quoting me facts!!”
A friend who I recently had contact with has put this problem in verse, which I would like to share with you.
The Simple Facts
The TV needs action and papers must sell
But just simple facts send the ratings to hell
So they pick up the pictures of ravers and ranters
And print all the words of the slogans and chanters.
Like “Zionism is racism” and “genocidal” –
Give the ranters their due, they’ve been far from idle.
Their words are repeated for print and TV
But the facts that belie them, we’ve yet to see.
So there must be many who patiently wait…
For the simple facts to set the record straight.
A friend who I recently had contact with has put this problem in verse, which I would like to share with you.
The Simple Facts
The TV needs action and papers must sell
But just simple facts send the ratings to hell
So they pick up the pictures of ravers and ranters
And print all the words of the slogans and chanters.
Like “Zionism is racism” and “genocidal” –
Give the ranters their due, they’ve been far from idle.
Their words are repeated for print and TV
But the facts that belie them, we’ve yet to see.
So there must be many who patiently wait…
For the simple facts to set the record straight.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Matches made in Bone Marrow Banks for Arabs
By Avigayil Kadesh
Only about 1.2 million of the world's roughly 400 million ethnic Arabs live in Israel, yet the sole registry for Arab bone marrow donors is located in Jerusalem's Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center. Bone marrow transplanted from a genetically matching donor may be effective against blood cancers and a variety of genetic diseases.
Arab registry director Amal Bishara, an Arab woman with a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from Hadassah, has traveled to 60 Arab communities since the registry was created in 2008 as an offshoot of the hospital's 22-year-old Jewish registry. Through lectures, publicity campaigns, newspaper articles and social media, Bishara has brought in 9,000 registrants resulting in six donations.
But before she can collect samples - often with the help of her family or a cadre of retired Arab nurses - she must sell the concept of unrelated, anonymous donors. Since Arabs frequently marry relatives, at least 60 percent of patients find matches within their own extended families (on the flip side, about 90 percent of Arab requests for bone marrow transplants are for children with genetic diseases resulting from consanguineous marriages). Hadassah previously had little success in recruiting Arab registrants. Thanks to Bishara, attitudes are changing.
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/InnovativeIsrael/Bone_marrow_banks-Jan_2011.htm?DisplayMode=print
Only about 1.2 million of the world's roughly 400 million ethnic Arabs live in Israel, yet the sole registry for Arab bone marrow donors is located in Jerusalem's Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center. Bone marrow transplanted from a genetically matching donor may be effective against blood cancers and a variety of genetic diseases.
Arab registry director Amal Bishara, an Arab woman with a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from Hadassah, has traveled to 60 Arab communities since the registry was created in 2008 as an offshoot of the hospital's 22-year-old Jewish registry. Through lectures, publicity campaigns, newspaper articles and social media, Bishara has brought in 9,000 registrants resulting in six donations.
But before she can collect samples - often with the help of her family or a cadre of retired Arab nurses - she must sell the concept of unrelated, anonymous donors. Since Arabs frequently marry relatives, at least 60 percent of patients find matches within their own extended families (on the flip side, about 90 percent of Arab requests for bone marrow transplants are for children with genetic diseases resulting from consanguineous marriages). Hadassah previously had little success in recruiting Arab registrants. Thanks to Bishara, attitudes are changing.
For the full story see
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/InnovativeIsrael/Bone_marrow_banks-Jan_2011.htm?DisplayMode=print
Friday, August 12, 2011
SIX YEARS LATER
I think the following letter by Rachel Saperstein, Neve Dekalim/Nitzan in Gaza is worth reprinting, since we tend to forget just how the 8000 Israelis expelled from Gush Kativ are still struggling to get their lives together. The plan was that this should bring peace to the area but we have seen now how it has created just the opposite.
She writes "I’m still paying the mortgage on my house in Gush Katif, the house our government destroyed, and now we've added the mortgage on the house we are building in Nitzan," K says to me. We are sitting in the Nitzan Library. We speak softly. After all, we are in a library. My visiting grandchildren are selecting books.
There is a lingering sadness in each of us. The burden of the expulsion weighs heavily upon us.
Despite the saying 'time heals all wounds' apparently the wound of being forcibly removed from your own home by your own people lays open and continues to fester.
K talks about her sense of loss. "Rachel, I feel as if I'm going through another expulsion. My neighbors in the refugee camp are moving away. Their caravilla is removed from the site as soon as they leave. I experience a sense of loss as good friends leave. I know they are moving to permanent homes but I feel the pain of eviction once again. I tremble when I see the empty space that once was a home. I can't seem to pack my belongings. Having to pack once again leaves me with a sense of dread."
"My two sons are in the army" K continues as she pulls out their picture. They are officers in combat units. "Last week there was a knock on my door. It was my younger son's commanding officer, with a group from his platoon. I froze in terror! 'Has something happened to my son?' I cried.
'Your son is fine' he smiled. 'We've come to help you pack'. Though my heart was pounding, I forced myself to calm down and began to give the soldiers instructions."
There is an ambivalent reaction to our soldiers. Six years ago they came to evict us. This time, as we slowly get ready to move again, they come to help us pack. But moving leaves us with a sense of sadness as we say a temporary goodbye to our dream of returning to Gush Katif.
I hugged K. The grandchildren had selected their books and are ready to return to our caravilla for lunch.
Last night I took a walk around the area. The caravillas that we have called home have begun to disappear. Fields of weeds have taken over. Where homes remain gardens are increasingly neglected.
We who are moving to Lachish still have a long wait as building has yet to begin. We are waiting for our Housing Committee to make a final choice of builder. We are depending on the Committee to make a proper choice, a builder with a good track record. There is also the choice of the contractor for public buildings. We cannot move people into a largely unpopulated area without synagogues, a supermarket, a health clinic, kindergartens and schools. So we wait.
As we complete six years of expulsion this Tisha bAv we contemplate the irony that the stories of expulsions on this terrible date for the Jewish Nation will now include the expulsion of Jews by Jews.
She writes "I’m still paying the mortgage on my house in Gush Katif, the house our government destroyed, and now we've added the mortgage on the house we are building in Nitzan," K says to me. We are sitting in the Nitzan Library. We speak softly. After all, we are in a library. My visiting grandchildren are selecting books.
There is a lingering sadness in each of us. The burden of the expulsion weighs heavily upon us.
Despite the saying 'time heals all wounds' apparently the wound of being forcibly removed from your own home by your own people lays open and continues to fester.
K talks about her sense of loss. "Rachel, I feel as if I'm going through another expulsion. My neighbors in the refugee camp are moving away. Their caravilla is removed from the site as soon as they leave. I experience a sense of loss as good friends leave. I know they are moving to permanent homes but I feel the pain of eviction once again. I tremble when I see the empty space that once was a home. I can't seem to pack my belongings. Having to pack once again leaves me with a sense of dread."
"My two sons are in the army" K continues as she pulls out their picture. They are officers in combat units. "Last week there was a knock on my door. It was my younger son's commanding officer, with a group from his platoon. I froze in terror! 'Has something happened to my son?' I cried.
'Your son is fine' he smiled. 'We've come to help you pack'. Though my heart was pounding, I forced myself to calm down and began to give the soldiers instructions."
There is an ambivalent reaction to our soldiers. Six years ago they came to evict us. This time, as we slowly get ready to move again, they come to help us pack. But moving leaves us with a sense of sadness as we say a temporary goodbye to our dream of returning to Gush Katif.
I hugged K. The grandchildren had selected their books and are ready to return to our caravilla for lunch.
Last night I took a walk around the area. The caravillas that we have called home have begun to disappear. Fields of weeds have taken over. Where homes remain gardens are increasingly neglected.
We who are moving to Lachish still have a long wait as building has yet to begin. We are waiting for our Housing Committee to make a final choice of builder. We are depending on the Committee to make a proper choice, a builder with a good track record. There is also the choice of the contractor for public buildings. We cannot move people into a largely unpopulated area without synagogues, a supermarket, a health clinic, kindergartens and schools. So we wait.
As we complete six years of expulsion this Tisha bAv we contemplate the irony that the stories of expulsions on this terrible date for the Jewish Nation will now include the expulsion of Jews by Jews.
Monday, August 8, 2011
ISRAELI MEDICAL TEAM PERFORM FIRST EVER PEDIATRIC OPEN HEART SURGERY IN MWANZA TANZANIA
August 7, Tanzania--
A medical team from Israel’s Save a Child’s Heart has successfully performed the first ever pediatric open heart surgery in Mwanza Tanzania and on the youngest child in Tanzania.
Laurencia Simon is four years old, the daughter of two farmers, and lives in a mud hut without electricity or running water. Two years ago she was diagnosed with congenital heart disease. Due to a lack of infrastructure, finance and training, doctors in Tanzania are unable to perform open heart surgery on such young children and so they were unable to help her. After hearing an announcement on the radio she and her mother settled into a three hour bus ride to Mwanza as they knew the only hope for Laurencia’s very serious heart condition was to receive care from the Save a Child’s Heart medical team.
“For the past two years, Laurencia has been too sick to go to school,” says Laurencia’s mother Paulina Bujiku, 27 yrs old. “We’ve been coming to the Bugando medical center once a month. But what Laurencia needs is an operation. Thanks to Save a Child’s Heart she’s about to get it. I’m scared, but I have faith.”
After a long surgery Laurencia was recovering well.
“It required incredible team work to create an operating room that could meet our needs,” says Dr. Lior Sasson, Chief Surgeon Save a Child’s Heart and Head of the Cardiothoracic Surgery Department at Wolfson Medical Center. “But we did it- we created an environment where we could carefully and conscientiously perform open heart surgery and we saved the life of little Laurencia. What can I say- I feel incredibly proud.”
Save a Child’s Heart doctors and staff worked in collaboration with the staff at the Bugando hospital in Mwanza Tanzania and Kasbian Nuriel Chirich, Honorary Consul to Israel in Tanzania, to prepare for this moment. And all the hard work paid off, as children with heart disease came from across Tanzania to be examined by the Save a Child’s Heart team of doctors.
“There are about 200 sick Tanzanian children who will be examined by the Save a Child’s Heart team,” says Dr. Akiva Tamir, Chief cardiologist at Save a Child’s Heart and the head of the Pediatric Cardiology Unit at Wolfson Medical Centre. “I am checking over 20 children every day and we all are committed to doing whatever it takes to help them and save their lives.”
8 to 10 pediatric heart surgeries will took place Tanzania. The rest of the children who need operations will be flown to Israel’s Wolfson hospital this upcoming year – with all expenses paid by Save a Child’s Heart.
Once the surgeries are completed 13 volunteers and supporters for Save a Child's Heart will climb Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak, to raise $1 million dollars in order to save the lives of another 100 children in Africa suffering from heart disease.
Amongst the climbers is Dr. Godwin Godfrey from Tanzania. He has been in Israel the past three years training with Save a Child’s Heart at the Wolfson Medical Centre. Dr. Godfrey assisted in the historic pediatric open heart surgery and will take part in all the surgeries in the coming week.
“It’s extraordinary,” says Dr. Godfrey. “I finally see my people benefit from all my hard work. I now know that when I complete my training and return to Tanzania, I will be treating these children and doing everything I can to give them a second chance at life.”
Since its inception in 1996, the Save a Child’s Heart medical team treated over 2,600 children from 42 countries, including the Palestinian areas and Gaza, and has examined and evaluated more than 6,000 children.
For more information, please visit www.saveachildsheart.org .
A medical team from Israel’s Save a Child’s Heart has successfully performed the first ever pediatric open heart surgery in Mwanza Tanzania and on the youngest child in Tanzania.
Laurencia Simon is four years old, the daughter of two farmers, and lives in a mud hut without electricity or running water. Two years ago she was diagnosed with congenital heart disease. Due to a lack of infrastructure, finance and training, doctors in Tanzania are unable to perform open heart surgery on such young children and so they were unable to help her. After hearing an announcement on the radio she and her mother settled into a three hour bus ride to Mwanza as they knew the only hope for Laurencia’s very serious heart condition was to receive care from the Save a Child’s Heart medical team.
“For the past two years, Laurencia has been too sick to go to school,” says Laurencia’s mother Paulina Bujiku, 27 yrs old. “We’ve been coming to the Bugando medical center once a month. But what Laurencia needs is an operation. Thanks to Save a Child’s Heart she’s about to get it. I’m scared, but I have faith.”
After a long surgery Laurencia was recovering well.
“It required incredible team work to create an operating room that could meet our needs,” says Dr. Lior Sasson, Chief Surgeon Save a Child’s Heart and Head of the Cardiothoracic Surgery Department at Wolfson Medical Center. “But we did it- we created an environment where we could carefully and conscientiously perform open heart surgery and we saved the life of little Laurencia. What can I say- I feel incredibly proud.”
Save a Child’s Heart doctors and staff worked in collaboration with the staff at the Bugando hospital in Mwanza Tanzania and Kasbian Nuriel Chirich, Honorary Consul to Israel in Tanzania, to prepare for this moment. And all the hard work paid off, as children with heart disease came from across Tanzania to be examined by the Save a Child’s Heart team of doctors.
“There are about 200 sick Tanzanian children who will be examined by the Save a Child’s Heart team,” says Dr. Akiva Tamir, Chief cardiologist at Save a Child’s Heart and the head of the Pediatric Cardiology Unit at Wolfson Medical Centre. “I am checking over 20 children every day and we all are committed to doing whatever it takes to help them and save their lives.”
8 to 10 pediatric heart surgeries will took place Tanzania. The rest of the children who need operations will be flown to Israel’s Wolfson hospital this upcoming year – with all expenses paid by Save a Child’s Heart.
Once the surgeries are completed 13 volunteers and supporters for Save a Child's Heart will climb Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak, to raise $1 million dollars in order to save the lives of another 100 children in Africa suffering from heart disease.
Amongst the climbers is Dr. Godwin Godfrey from Tanzania. He has been in Israel the past three years training with Save a Child’s Heart at the Wolfson Medical Centre. Dr. Godfrey assisted in the historic pediatric open heart surgery and will take part in all the surgeries in the coming week.
“It’s extraordinary,” says Dr. Godfrey. “I finally see my people benefit from all my hard work. I now know that when I complete my training and return to Tanzania, I will be treating these children and doing everything I can to give them a second chance at life.”
Since its inception in 1996, the Save a Child’s Heart medical team treated over 2,600 children from 42 countries, including the Palestinian areas and Gaza, and has examined and evaluated more than 6,000 children.
For more information, please visit www.saveachildsheart.org .
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