In our Community Health Project in Jordan, we are seeing lives transformed through health screening and education. We work in partnership with local organizations, medical professionals, and medical students to offer community health screening and health education for beneficiaries who are poor and marginalized.
Last year we restarted a women’s exercise and health discussion group which had been forced to close a few years ago. We worked hard to write material that was simpler, more engaging and practical, based on our first experience. The women really enjoyed it, and we ran it a second time, with some new members.
We are now running it for the third time, with the same group of women, because we saw trust beginning to build between them. In the group, there are Iraqi, Syrian, Palestinian, Gazan, Turkmen, Jordanian, and Egyptian women. One week they started spontaneously sharing about their mutual experiences of being outsiders and refugees in this country.
We rarely, rarely see women listen to each other. Usually, one person’s story is a chance for another woman to ‘one-up’ them with her story, or to offer a lot of unsolicited advice, but on this occasion, they just listened and empathised and cried with each other.
It’s very exciting to see us getting somewhere in our dream of women building trust to dream together and catch the vision for change and cheer each other on in their capacity to bring change.
The WASH project has taught us many valuable things, one of which being the necessity of having access to clean water, which can help us avoid many diseases.
Mahabat had infused that young woman with encouragement and confidence that she could do it, and together they did!
In November 2023 Operation Mercy in Afghanistan started building a solar water supply network in a district in Kabul. We were joined at the opening ceremony by local officials and members of the community.
The kidney surgery was life saving for Sarah! She is now an active and smiley 1 year old, adored by her older siblings.
In our Community Health Project in Jordan, we are seeing lives transformed through health screening and education. We work in partnership with local organizations, medical professionals,
The three staff workers assigned each of the participants to a coach. They were then given materials and taught how to share what they had learned with others.
Health is everyone’s responsibility, and Bibi grew in her health knowledge and confidence through our training and put it into practice for the good of her community.
Staff from our partner organization are reaching out to a Roma community in the south of Kyrgyzstan.
Now we eat vegetables at every meal, I am stronger, I can do my housework and take care of my children and a sick member of our family.
The third wave of Covid brought a shaking up in the community in the capital of North Macedonia. One way our Operation Mercy team made a difference was by coming alongside the medical vaccination personnel in practical ways.
Soon Mohammed was back to a normal weight and Farzana was delighted to see her son playing again, standing and moving, and having an appetite.
In our Operation Mercy Community Health clinics in Jordan, we screen patients who need diagnostic tests and specialist follow up.
In one of the villages in the outskirts of Kabul, where Operation Mercy has a Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) program, men’s groups eagerly receive their lessons.
“The people here stood with me,” says Om Waleed*, recounting her young daughter’s need for surgery. “Even though my family is all the way in Syria,
… she will pass this information on as she cares for pregnant and lactating women.
“Most of the families in this village lack access to clean drinking water, and it is extremely difficult for our women and children to get water from a distance.”
Educating disadvantaged communities about their health does not only prevent illnesses and improve their wellbeing, but it can also save lives.
Two months later, Serah was improving from the malnutrition.
All of these health conditions have multiple underlying causes, but poor dietary habits are high among the risk factors.
Serving at Hope & Health has given our staff the opportunity to be make a difference in people´s lives in Skopje, in a way that can only happen over time.