THE STORY OF ROZANA

Maysa and Rozana – a mother’s love literally crossed borders

Project Rozana was launched in 2013 by Hadassah Australia. It was inspired by the remarkable story of survival of four year-old Palestinian girl, Rozana Salawhi.

In 2012, Rozana sustained life-threatening injuries when she fell from the ninth floor of the family’s apartment in a village near Ramallah. If not for the quick thinking of her mother, Palestinian journalist, Maysa Abu Ghannam, Rozana would have died. Maysa refused to send her daughter to the local Palestinian hospital, preferring to have her treated at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, recognised as a world leader in paediatric emergency care. She arranged with the Palestinian and Israeli ambulance services to transfer Rozana at the checkpoint, despite the precious minutes that were lost during the handover.

Later, when asked why she made that fateful decision, Maysa said that she believed that Rozana’s survival was more likely if she was treated in Israel’s healthcare system.

And health, more than any other sector in this emotionally and politically-charged environment, has the capacity to create meaningful relationships between people of goodwill.

Ron Finkel AM, as President of Hadassah Australia, uncovered Maysa’s story. In by-passing the West Bank health services, she raised an uncomfortable truth for Israelis and Palestinians. That is the glaring difference in the standard of health care between the two communities, despite their physical closeness. For Ron it was time to act.

It was not enough that Rozana was alive because of her mother’s fierce determination to put the life and well-being of her child on the line. It was time to level the playing field, to expose to a wider audience the willingness of the Israeli healthcare system and its practitioners to provide practical support to their equally willing Palestinian colleagues.

Project Rozana didn’t bring the sides together or compel the Israelis to act. Nor did it bang heads in the Palestinian health system to accept an offer of help.

What Project Rozana did was to open the curtain on an area of society that has for too long been closed. Shrill, uninformed voices of hate viewed any form of coexistence as a stunt or worse.

Project Rozana developed from there, as a force for improvement in the health of Palestinians, and their healthcare in general. And alongside, creating a positive dialog between ordinary Israelis and Palestinians.