Health is a top priority globally for MASHAV. In the year 2000,
cooperation took place in 21 countries. Our goal is to provide
flexible programming, suited to both the specific needs of partner
countries and to Israel's area of expertise. In this way, MASHAV
serves as a bridge between Israel's medical community and the
developing world.
MASHAV benefits from cooperation with an extensive network of Israeli
hospitals, medical schools, research institutes and health funds. We
are thus able to draw upon a large reservoir of Israeli experts in
all fields, for activities both in Israel and in host countries. Our
close partnership with Israel's medical establishment, facilitated
and coordinated by our permanent, in-house medical adviser, enables
MASHAV to implement programming with a high degree of speed and
flexibility.
In the year 2000, MASHAV's medical activities encompassed 6 projects,
78 short-term consultancies, 4 on-the-spot courses, 10 training
programs and 14 individual programs.
MASHAV's training activities in medicine and public health are
conducted both in Israel and on-site in host countries. In the year
2000, training activities included our annual one-year International
Master's Program in Public Health at the Hebrew University/Hadassah
Hospital, Jerusalem and a three-month individualized postgraduate
medical training program at Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of
Medicine. Israel also provides international courses in a broad range
of languages and subjects in Israel and one-country tailor-made
courses abroad.
MASHAV's health projects focus on turn-key infrastructure projects
with long-term sustainability. Key to such sustainability is
providing partner countries with technologies at a manageable scale.
In addition, every project includes extensive training in Israel and
abroad, as well as long-term follow-up and support activities.
Many of MASHAV's health projects take advantage of Israel's strong
expertise in disaster management and emergency medicine. In the year
2000, such projects have included upgrading the Trauma Center in
Al-Amal Hospital in the Gaza Strip and beginning construction of a
Cancer Center in Mauritania. MASHAV also built a large
state-of-the-art Intensive Care Unit in Kharkov, Ukraine and rebuilt
an upgraded ICU and Rehabilitation Center in Dzce, Turkey, following
the tragic earthquake there.
MASHAV also provides a range of training courses in epidemiology and
emergency and disaster medicine, including a course in Advanced
Trauma Care. In 2000, courses in this field were conducted in
numerous partner countries, including Azerbeijan, Bulgaria, the
Dominican Republic, Latvia, Uzbekistan and China.
Eye Camps
For over 40 years, MASHAV has dispatched Israeli eye doctors to
countries throughout the developing world to treat preventable
blindness and ocular disease. Teams of Israeli doctors set up camp
for ten days to two weeks, bringing with them extensive treatment
equipment often unavailable in the country. During their stay, they
examine hundreds of individuals, provide treatment, train local
medical staff and perform over a hundred operations. In the year
2000, eye camps were operated in Rwanda and Cameroon.
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