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For the past five months, two-year-old Aya Aiid Abo-Mois has been coming to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa for dialysis. Her daily morning journey begins from a small village outside of Jenin that is under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority.
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Aya and her mother at Rambam
Photo credit: Pioter Fliter |
The journey into Israel is not a simple matter. Every morning, Aya and her mother wait for a driver of the Derech Hachlama (Way to Recovery) volunteer-run organization from Israel, which operates transportation services for Palestinian patients from their homes to hospitals in Israel.
Aya is the youngest of four children. In January 2009, she was hospitalized in the Jenin Governmental Hospital for kidney failure. Ten days later, her condition having worsened, she was transferred to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, where she received dialysis treatment for over a month. At the request of her family and with authorization from the Palestinian Authority, Aya was moved to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, closer to her home.
The long journey to the hospital begins at 5 AM every morning. Aya's mother, Sahir Abo-Mois, describes the physical and emotional challenges of daily travel with her toddler: "The minute we arrive at the hospital, the child exhibits distress."
Sahir leaves her other three children with her mother. The family already lost a daughter to kidney disease six years ago; she died before reaching the age of one year. This tragedy has made Sahir stronger and firm in her faith that Aya will get better and will have a better future.
Over the past few months, Rambam Hospital has become a second home to mother and daughter. It is here where mothers of different cultures and religions, Israeli Arabs and Jews, meet and speak freely about their fears and hardships and even discuss geo-political issues of the day. Sahir has developed a close kinship with the people she has met at the hospital and says that there is a feeling of cooperation. She says, "I am especially grateful to Derech Hachlama, and without their help I don't know how we could provide my daughter with the superior life-saving treatment that she needs."
Derech Hachlama (est. 2006) began when a Palestinian member of the Forum of Bereaved Families asked his friend, an Israeli member of the forum, to help him with travel to Rambam. The Israeli, Yuval Roth, had lost his brother fifteen years previously; the brother was murdered during his reserve-military service when he hitched a ride with Hamas militants disguised as religious Jews. Mr. Roth didn't hesitate to offer assistance to his friend, and very quickly, with the aid of other members, a network of approximately sixty patients' using the organization's travel services developed. "The demand is great for travel from Palestinian villages to Israeli hospitals, and at least two new patients join our service every month," Mr. Roth states
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