On October 18th, 2011, health care workers from Washington and Oregon left for a medical delegation to Gaza, hosted by the Gaza Community Mental Health Program. The purpose of the trip is to learn more about the effects of ongoing war and occupation on the health of the citizens of Gaza. Maxine Fookson, a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner from Portland, is the Oregon PSR representative of this group.
Maxine Fookson will join KBOO host Jenka Soderberg at 11 am on Monday December 5th to report back on her trip to Gaza.
Maxine's blog post from October 22nd, begins:
"Today was the first of our health visits. From what I am understanding, health care is administered in a number of ways here. For those who have refugee status by virtue of having been displaced from their homes and land by Israel in either 1948 or 1967 the UN provides education (until 9th grade) and health care, including all vaccines, until age 3 yrs. I learned today that each of the doctors and nurses at the UNRWA Clinics see 100 patients a day. Tomorrow I will go there and see that system. And I am sure there will be plenty to say about that. One thing that is amazing is that Gaza has an immunization rate of >90% for the basic childhood vaccines. That is so unbelievable."
Please visit Maxine's blog to read the rest of this post and more reports from her trip to Gaza.