Album by ELCA World Hunger Appeal. Photos by LWF Jerusalem. 1 - 42 of 42 Total.
enlarge 65KB, 640x480 1 LWF Jerusalem 1 A steel diorama of the Separation Wall draws the attention of VTC director Francis Gharfeh and two students during the international week hosted by the Eidsvoll Vocational Training School in Norway. Gharfeh, along with two VTC students, was invited to Norway as part of a cultural and educational exchange program established in 2005. Eidsvoll students arranged activiites and designed projects that raised awareness of the political situation in Palestine.
enlarge 62KB, 640x480 2 LWF Jerusalem 10 At the Beit Liqya village health clinic, a doctor checks the blood pressure of a patient. The Beit Liqya clinic is the largest of the four village health clinics and sees the largest number of patients. LWF works at the clinic with a team from St. John Eye Hospital. The St. John team conducts eye exams, and the Augusta Victoria team offers general health care as well as pediatric and pre-natal care and a diabetes clinic.
enlarge 64KB, 480x640 3 LWF Jerusalem 11 The LWF Village Health Program was established in the early 1950s and quickly became one of the most important healthcare programs following the 1948 war. Now, over 50 years later, the LWF still operates clinics in four villages near the Green Line.
enlarge 101KB, 480x640 4 LWF Jerusalem 12 A portion of the funding for the VT program comes directly from earned income. As part of an extensive process of boundary fence repairs, three students from the VTC and their insturctor install a fence on the gorunds of the Lutheran World Federation Mount of Olives campus. The LWF contracts the VTC when possible, and pays the school for its labor and supplies.
enlarge 65KB, 640x480 5 LWF Jerusalem 13 Mariam and Alla, two patients at Augusta Victoria Hospital, tape dialysis tubies to a doll on the floor of the Artificial Kidney Unit as part of a play therapy program practiced by the hospital. Every week, the two children visit Augusta Victoria Hospital and spend three days receiving dialysis treatment and playing. AVH is moving toward a style of healthcare focusing on holistic care and specialized medical departments such as kidney dialysis and cancer care.
enlarge 53KB, 640x480 6 LWF Jerusalem 14 Tulkarm Camp is the second largest refugee camp in the West Bank, a place of staggering poverty and frequent violence between militant groups and the Israel Army. Future Generation Kindergarten in Tulkarm Camp is crowded and poorly furnished for the children who attend the school, but the students are still enthusiastic to learn and to interact with other children. The Lutheran World Federation donated 25 teddy bears to Future Generation Kindergarten, which has almost no toys for its students. Each bear had the name of a student on it, and members of the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) delivered the bears to the children.
enlarge 68KB, 640x480 7 LWF Jerusalem 15 Movement from one section of a town to another is much more difficult or impossilbe since the start of the Wall. In Abu Dis, a suburb of East Jerusalem, residents climb through a rocky gap to reach their homes.
enlarge 68KB, 640x480 8 LWF Jerusalem 16 In June 2006, LWF Regional Representative Rev. Mark Brown (left) and Augusta Victoria Hospital CEO Dr. Tawfiq Nasser (right) accompany EU Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner on a tour of AVH. Ferrero-Waldner pledged EU support for AVH and the other hospitals in the East Jerusalem Hospitals Network (EJHN).
enlarge 49KB, 640x480 9 LWF Jerusalem 17 A section of the Separation Wall snakes through the area of Abu Dis outside of East Jerusalem. With the building of the Separation Wall, life in the West Bank has become increasingly difficult. Access to jobs, schools, and healthcare rarely occurs without waiting--hours waiting at checkpoints and months waiting for travel permits.
enlarge 104KB, 640x480 10 LWF Jerusalem 18 Nabil Batarseh, storekeeper for LWF and AVH humanitarian supplies, takes part in the annual olive harvest. The process of picking and pressing olives is dependent on volunteers who donate their time during the seasonal olive harvest. It takes about six weeks to harvest the 800 trees on the LWF campus. The oil produced is used in the kitchen of the Augusta Victoria Hospital and also distributed to support the hospital's "Fund for the Poor."
enlarge 56KB, 480x640 11 LWF Jerusalem 19 Each year, the Lutheran World Federation harvests and presses olives from the 800 trees on the LWF property on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Some of the oil is used in the Augusta Victoria Hospital kitchen. The rest is available to LWF visitors and friends in hand-blown bottles made by Palestinian artisans working in Hebron using recycled glass. Mount of Olives olive oil is a popular gift and fundraising product.
enlarge 59KB, 486x640 12 LWF Jerusalem 2 Amirah, age nine, has suffered from leukemia for the past year and a half. She is awaiting surgery to remove her cancerous growth and will continue chemotherapy afterwards. Her grandmother stays with her in the hospital while her parents are at home in Bethlehem caring for her three brothers. Amirah explains that it feels normal to be here in the hospital, and she appears to be friends with everyone in the hospital the nurses, doctors, and fellow patients. Today, Amirah and the other children in the pediatric department play with balloon animals. Full of energy, Amirah blows kisses to the nurses in the adjacent room through the window.
enlarge 88KB, 640x480 13 LWF Jerusalem 20 he VTC was instrumental in designing and constructing the playground that now stands adjacent to Augusta Victoria Hospital. The wood construction offers a place to play to children who are patients at the hospital, are visiting family at the hospital, or are enrolled in the kindergarten that is located on the AVH grounds.
enlarge 66KB, 640x480 14 LWF Jerusalem 21 A new playground installed near Augusta Victoria Hospital is always busy with children from the hospital or community who enjoy a new place to play. Students at the Vocational Training Center helped in designing and building the playground.
enlarge 93KB, 640x480 15 LWF Jerusalem 22 The Lutheran World Federation has been serving Palestinian refugees through Augusta Victoria Hospital since 1950. The hospital building, built in 1910, has been maintained and updated through the years by the LWF. One of the most recent renovations was the transformation of a water cistern into the new Cancer Care Center.
enlarge 48KB, 640x480 16 LWF Jerusalem 23 At the Vocational Training center in Ramallah, VTCR director Randa Hilal speaks with LWF Regional Representative Rev. Mark Brown to a group of automechanics trainees. Students at the VTCR enroll for one year of training, as opposed to the VTC's two-year program. The apprentice training program run by the VTCR provides a more intensive learning environment for the students.
enlarge 111KB, 640x480 17 LWF Jerusalem 24 Steve Bahbah, the son of the Director of Patient Services at Augusta Victoria Hospital, Michel Bahbah, picks olives from the upper branches of a tree during the LWF's harvest. LWF staff and their families and friends pick olives, along with volunteers who live in or are visiting Jerusalem.
enlarge 110KB, 640x480 18 LWF Jerusalem 25 A major priority of the LWF is to renovate and secure the Mount of Olives property with improvement projects. In 2005, much work was done repairing and erecting boundary walls and protective fences around the campus, including this boundary wall on the northwest side of the property.
enlarge 54KB, 640x480 19 LWF Jerusalem 26 Dr. Jihad Khalil El-Baba checks a young patient for a deviated septum at the Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) department. Dr. El-Baba, a renowned ENT specialist, has been the head of the ENT deparment at Augusta Victoria Hospital since 1999. The department conducts surgeries that are not available anywhere else in Palestine.
enlarge 46KB, 640x480 20 LWF Jerusalem 27 Augusta Victoria Hospital CEO, Dr. Tawfiq Nasser
enlarge 56KB, 640x480 21 LWF Jerusalem 28 The radiation therapy team at Augusta Victoria Hospital. Darassi Imad, Yasser Qasem, Ayman Jaabani, and Dima Husseini (left to right) are the only radio-oncology therapists in Palestine and are in charge of administering the radiation treatments to patients at the Cancer Care Center.
enlarge 45KB, 640x480 22 LWF Jerusalem 29 The team of radiation therapists adjust the position of a cancer patient on the linear accelerator. Patients between the ages of three and 98 have been treated at the center, and the demand is great due to the fact that for West Bank citizens, Augusta Victoria Hospital is the only place they can receive radiation therapy.
enlarge 61KB, 640x480 23 LWF Jerusalem 3 The Augusta Victoria Hospital ambulance is always ready to be dispatched when needed in the Jerusalem area.
enlarge 71KB, 640x480 24 LWF Jerusalem 30 The medical physicists at the Cancer Care Center are in charge not only of preparing radiation treatment plans for patients, but also for performing quality control and testing on the linear accelerator. Mohammad Abusrour and Amineh Khatib Hamad prepare to calibrate the linear accelerator, a weekly process that ensures that radiation dose rates will not fluctuate.
enlarge 50KB, 640x480 25 LWF Jerusalem 31 patient speaks with Dr. Fuad Sabatin, the director of the Cancer Care Center, about cancer treatments at Augusta Victoria Hospital. Patients who require daily cancer treatments often stay at the hospital on in-patient status. Even those who live a short distance from the hospital would normally have to spend hours in transit because of restricted roadways and checkpoints that Israel has set up in the West Bank.
enlarge 56KB, 640x480 26 LWF Jerusalem 32 To reach the cancer center, patients need permits to travel through the West Bank, and AVH works with the Israeli Ministry of Health to help patients acquire these permits. At the cancer center reception desk, Dr. Zuhair Maali consults with medical secretary Mirvat Abualhwa who sets appointments for new patients and keeps track of their permit status. The Palestinian Ministry of Health most often refers the patients who are treated at the cancer center.
enlarge 57KB, 640x480 27 LWF Jerusalem 33 A woman has her feet inspected at the diabetes center foot clinic. Patients at the foot clinic are tested for sensation in their feet and counseled on foot care and ways to avoid infection and injury. In 2006, the foot care clinic will expand with the help of DanChurchAid, which plans to establish a program in which Danish podiatrists will volunteer at Augusta Victoria Hospital and teach medical techniques to the permanent foot clinic staff.
enlarge 53KB, 640x480 28 LWF Jerusalem 34 At the diabetes clinic, a young girl proudly shows her arm to her mother after receiving a shot. 2005 brought with it many challenges in transporting patients to Augusta Victoria Hospital. Restricted highway travel and continued construction of the Separation Wall in the West Bank made it nearly impossible for patients to reach the hospital for necessary medical services. The LWF expanded a busing service that picks up patients and staff in West Bank towns and transports them to the hospital.
enlarge 62KB, 640x480 29 LWF Jerusalem 35 A class of young schoolgirls listens as female students at the VTC in Beit Hanina explain the telecommunications program they are enrolled in. The VT program hopes to increase its numbers of female students by adding another program besides telecommunications that will lead to job opportunities for women. Local schools are encouraged to introduce their students to the VT program at an early age so as to see the options available to women who want to further their education.
enlarge 60KB, 480x640 30 LWF Jerusalem 36 Having finished welding a section of fencing, two VTC metalwork trainees carry the fence outside for painting. Protective fencing that surrounds the Augsuta Victoria Hospital grounds was produced by VTC students, simulating a market transaction.
enlarge 49KB, 640x480 31 LWF Jerusalem 37 Getting ready before patients arrive, Hedaya Abu Zayad, an AVH nurse, stocks the pharmacy shelves at the Village Health Clinic in Kharbatha Bani Harith. The LWF village clinics provide medical care to villagers, and in return the town councils provide a space for the clinic. In Kharbatha Bani Harith, the clinic is on the lower level of the village elementary school, and the space is shared with the Palestinian Authority MInistry of Health, which runs an immunization clinic on the premises. Each of the village health clinics is outfitted with a pharmacy and also a medical lab where blood samples can be tested and analyzed.
enlarge 68KB, 640x480 32 LWF Jerusalem 38 Apprenticeship students at the VTCR receive instruction from a trainer in the auto mechanics department. The apprenticeship program was the first of its kind in Palestine and has been used as a model for other vocational training programs under the national system.
enlarge 62KB, 640x480 33 LWF Jerusalem 39 At the auto shop where he apprentices, trainee Abdullah Ia receives instruction from his employer. Abdullah, like other students enrolled in the apprentice training program, spends two days a week with instructors at the VTCR and three days a week at his apprenticeship, which is located on the outskirts of Ramallah. He hopes that his job experience will help him to find work quickly after completing the program.
enlarge 72KB, 640x480 34 LWF Jerusalem 4 Children from the pediatric dialysis unit pose for a photo outside Augusta Victoria Hospital. The restrictions on Palestinian access to Jerusalem pushed the AVH administration to take the position that accessibility to health care is a human right and that it is the duty of the hospital to find ways to ensure the timely and proper delivery of care to its patients.
enlarge 69KB, 640x428 35 LWF Jerusalem 41 Sparks fly in the metalwork workshop of the VTC in Beit Hanina. The VT program offers training in the fields of metalwork, carpentry, auto mechanics, auto electronics, telecommunications, and plumbing and central heating.
enlarge 46KB, 640x428 36 LWF Jerusalem 42 Female students in the VTC telecommunications program work together on a mobile phone maintenance computer program. The VTC added the telecommunications program in 2000 in order to expand vocational training to female students.
enlarge 44KB, 640x480 37 LWF Jerusalem 5 A mother sits with her daughter who has come to Augusta Victoria Hospital for kidney dialysis. The two came to the hospital on the AVH bus, which helps patients navigate through checkpoints and the Separation Wall in order to reach the hospital for necessary procedures like kidney dialysis or cancer therapy.
enlarge 77KB, 640x480 38 LWF Jerusalem 6 Sunset in the LWF's olive grove on the Mount of Olives.
enlarge 78KB, 640x480 39 LWF Jerusalem 7 The Augusta Victoria Hospital and the adjacent Ascension Church and Tower are easily located on the skyline of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. The rock, in addition to the church and tower, reminds us of the strong LWF presence on the Mount of Olives. It serves as a symbol of the steadfastness (summood in Arabic) of the LWF ministries and the LWF determination to offer hope in the midst of conflict and suffering.
enlarge 60KB, 640x480 40 LWF Jerusalem 8 The belltower on the Augusta Victoria campus is an easily recognized landmark along the skyline of the Mount of Olives.
enlarge 70KB, 597x640 41 LWF Jerusalem 9 Muna, age 11, and Haddiyah, age 13, are both renal failure patients from the Hebron area and share a room during their dialysis treatment. The dialysis treatment takes four hours to run beginning at seven am. During this time the children sing, dance, draw, and play together to pass the time. The children will often turn up the music on the television or play a cassette tape of Arabic music, dancing along to the music while still attached to their machines. After just 10 minutes of dancing and singing the children are noticeably "tabaana" or tired. Still smiling, they sit to rest. The children tire easily because of their condition and treatment. Around 11 am their treatment for the day is finished, and they pack up and head home.
enlarge 73KB, 640x359 42 lets fight aids Educational sign along a street in downtown Addis Ababa.
