ARAD ISRAEL

COHI’s Sudanese Refugee Maternal Health Project

Background

Over the past two years the Sudanese refugee community in Arad has been growing. More and more refugees have crossed the border into Israel, seeking asylum from the horrors of civil war in Sudan and the dangerous, untenable conditions in Egypt exacerbated by what occurred at the Cairo UNHCR’s office in 2005. Up until recently the majority of the refugees were living around the Tel Aviv area where services and job opportunities were more available. However, when the “Hadera/Gedera” law was passed in 2008 stating that in order for the refugees to get their working visas renewed they must move outside of the “Mercaz” area, the community in Arad quadrupled from 200 this past summer to approximately 1000 to date.

Background

Numerous difficulties have arisen due to this sharp influx to Arad. Arad is a struggling periphery town that is simply not in the position to meet all of the social service needs of its own residents, let alone the needs of the refugees. Amongst the Sudanese in Arad there is a strong sense of mutual support and community. Community members give a portion of their meager incomes to communal collections to support those who are unemployed or ill and two small community centers which house their daycare facilities, continuing education classes and prayer meetings. Yet, the leaders of the elected community council noted recently that they no longer know the members of their community and that the multiple issues that they are faced with, such as unemployment or lack of health care are problems that they are not equipped to deal with.

The Project

COHI/Beit Hillel volunteers met with the community a few months ago to explore the possibility of establishing a program focused on maternal health. The community leaders expressed a great deal of interest and encouraged the forming of our project. The three aspects of our project are as follows:

Pre/post natal education/checkupsHospital accompanimentAdvocacy

The Project

There are bi-weekly meetings in one of the community center in Arad for expectant mothers. During the meeting a COHI volunteer midwife discusses information on topics such as the Israeli pre-natal care system, nutrition or what to expect when you are expecting at Soroka hospital. The midwife also checks and charts the women’s pregnancy during the meetings.

The Project

Volunteers also provide accompaniment to the local hospital, Soroka, at the time of the birth. Soroka Hospital has been very accommodating in enabling a senior staff midwife (the same COHI volunteer who does the pre-natal classes/checks) to be on-call for the births. However, she often has other responsibilities during her shift and cannot be guaranteed to be present during the entirety of the birthing process. Many of these women do not have someone who can accompany them to the birth, so COHI provides volunteer “birth attendants” to meet these women at Soroka. These volunteers provide labor support, advocacy and most importantly a comforting, ever-present, familiar face for the expectant mothers.

Volunteers

We have a Soroka staff midwife, Hilary Kirshenbaum, attending the bi-weekly meetings, doing check-ups, charting the pregnancy and attending the births. She has been attempting to recruit other midwives to become involved with the project. Although at present she is the only one officially involved, other midwives have agreed to help out if they are already on shift.

A group of medical and nursing students from Ben Gurion University have taken a three day “birth attendant” training course and have a rotating on-call schedule to accompany the women to the hospital during their births

Pertinent Issues

MalnutritionLack of Health InsurancePovertyIllness (including STDs and TB)History of Trauma

Legal Status Issues

A new law has gone into effect which highlights the illegality of assisting someone coming from a country which views Israel as an enemy state (Sudan is in this category) who has illegally crossed the border into Israel. While this law is logical in many aspects, it effects asylum seekers who are running from the same government that is at odds with Israel. It throws into question the legality of this project.

Challenges

The project’s legal statusLack of fundsDifficulty finding a translator

Hopes for the Future

To be able to cover our translation, transportation and supply costs

To be able to hire a coordinator to ensure that the project continues to run smoothly

To be able to provide pre-natal vitamins/folic acid

To provide continuing support and education for the volunteers

World Peace (Just thought it should be added in there)

A Glimpse of Mothers, Babies and Volunteers