UNC's Intrah providing emergency assistance in West ...( CHAPEL HILL -- The University of North ...),Health

The United States Agency for International Development established the $35 million Maram project in June 2001 to improve the health of Palestinian families with special emphasis on women and children. Intrah was named one of the partners in Maram which is the largest health development project in the West Bank and Gaza today.

The recent month, however, has brought severe health-care challenges to the West Bank and Gaza, and the Maram project has worked to respond effectively.

We are operating in a crisis scenario, said Hammouda Bellamine, Intrahs director of performance improvement and training for Maram. We can no longer access the areas where we work, civilian casualties are increasing, and the infrastructure of our target communities is breaking down.

Bellamines office is located in Ramallah, West Bank, where hospitals have lost water and electricity several times in the last month. As a result, civilians must negotiate multiple roadblocks to reach the nearest functioning hospital. Women with labor complications are among those who have lost their lives as a result of road closures or hours-long delays for ambulances at checkpoints.

Intrah officials said that for the next six months, Intrah will focus on the following priorities to respond to the crisis through Maram:

• Emergency obstetric care to reduce the number of deaths of laboring women in transit to hospitals.
• Emergency medical equipment and aid for civilians.
• Distance learning programs to provide rapid technical support to frontline care providers.

The Maram project has established a temporary office in Jerusalem to pursue these goals.

Intrah is implementing the emerge
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Contact: Deb Saine
deb_saine@unc.edu
919-962-8415
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
12-Apr-2002