In a personal diary, Dr. Bill Dienst, writing from Rafah, Occupied Gaza, in Live from Palestine on December 22, 2006, reported information about the new Rachel Corrie Center now open in Rafah, Gaza dedicated to the mental health needs of Palestinian children and families. Rachel Corrie died in Rafah as a volunteer peace activist for the International Solidarity Movement back in 2003.
Bill Dienst is a rural family and emergency room physician from Omak, Washington, USA, who has visited Palestine on numerous occasions in the past and filed reports and photos about his trips. On this recent trip, he accompanied Scott Kennedy, a former mayor of Santa Cruz, California, who had been traveling in the Middle East with California State Senator Joe Semidian.
Reflecting on a previous trip, Bill Dienst recalled:
I was in Rafah a second time in November of 2003, two weeks after former Israeli PM Ariel Sharon ordered the destruction of apartments along the huge iron wall that replaced the iron fence and border with Egypt. The Old Salah Al Din road and Salam neighborhoods were decimated to widen this wall, which in Orwellian Doublespeak is now called the "Philadelphia Corridor." At that time, more than 2000 people were made homeless overnight, and many more people's apartments were still livable, but still partially destroyed and very scary. Many of these were then completely destroyed later on.
As horrifying as that was, Rafah's persecution was only in its early stages. Since then, over 2500 homes have been destroyed here in Rafah and 4000 families, approximately 20,000 individuals, have been made homeless by Israel's so-called "security measures."
It was in the context of these events that Rachel Corrie came to Palestine.
In one of his first stops in Rafah, Bill Dienst visited the Al Awda Clinic, which is reportedly sponsored by the Union of Health Work Committees, an NGO. This clinic provides comprehensive primary health care services, including house-calls to local residents. Upstairs from the Clinic is the Rachel Corrie Center, which is financially supported by the Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project and other sources. Olympia, of course, is in the state of Washington.
Rachel Corrie was an active member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) at the time of her death. Like other volunteers, she came to Palestine in response to the ongoing violations of Palestinian human rights by the Israeli occupation. ISM commenced its humanitarian mission in the Palestinian Territories by sending activist volunteers like Rachel Corrie to provide support to the Palestinian victims of the occupation, engage in peaceful and non-violent protests, and to work as human shields to defend Palestinian property from Israeli bulldozers engaged in house demolitions. Rachel Corrie was killed in that endeavor when she tried to block an Israeli army D9 Caterpillar bulldozer from demolishing a house. The bulldozer ran her over on March 16, 2003 and she died from the injuries she sustained.
(Primary school class at the Rachel Corrie Center.)
According to Bill Dienst, there is a high rate of learning disabilities, speech delay, malnutrition, and emotional disorders such as bedwetting, sleep disturbances and aggressive violent behavior among Rafah children. "Repetitive exposures to loud explosions are also producing many children who have hearing deficits," he said. The Rachel Corrie Center provides services to such children.
The Rachel Corrie Center also conducts a Women's Empowerment Program which deals with women's issues, the "psychosocial problems" that are unique to women in Rafah and the Palestinian territories. Bill Diest provided some background on how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has contributed to those problems:
Rafah is a traditional Islamic culture currently undergoing immense stress. The men, who have been the traditional breadwinners in this society, now experience 70% unemployment and are under intense humiliation. Domestic violence flourishes in such a situation. Women here are experiencing domestic violence in more fractured settings than ever before, whether they are married, divorced, separated or widowed.
There are group classes and well as individualized therapy tailored to each woman's needs, her educational background, and other factors. There is the formal program, which lasts 6 months, and then a follow up over several months to troubleshoot ongoing problems.
Women's Empowerment Project also has school based programs in six area schools where violence issues, women's rights, and where more sensitive topics like sex education, which has previously been taboo, are discussed.
To those interested, it was reported in November, 2005 that the house Rachel Corrie was defending is going to be rebuilt by International peace activists from Corrie's hometown, Olympia, Washington, who collected donations from many Americans.
http://www.imemc.org/...
Crossposted at Eternal Hope: http://eternalhope.blog-city.com/