“There is a total bipolarism between what we see outside and what we live inside the clinic: outside there is the devastation, inside we speak of work, of the future, of children. Despite everything, here we are still looking for normal ».
To speak is Eleonora Bruni, an Italian midwife of Emergency, for months in the Gaza strip. Coordinates maternal and reproductive health activities in an outpatient clinic in Khan Youunis. A place where we continue to talk about prevention, breastfeeding, childbirth and contraception, while outside – a few meters further – you count the dead under the rubble and you survive improvised curtains.
«The women who come to us have lost their home, many have also lost familiar. Some live with eight or ten people in a few square meters. But they do not give up taking care of themselves and their children. The strength with which they face every day leaves me speechless ».
The clinic, managed by local personnel with the international emergency support, has become a fundamental garrison for a population now deprived of everything. “The territorial medicine service has completely disappeared in Gaza. The hospitals that work are very few, and they are collapsing. But the network of clinics, the widespread health centers, those most accessible especially for women, have been destroyed or closed ».
«When we arrived, we wondered if it was appropriate to reactivate a reproductive health service in a war context. It seemed like a paradox. And instead it was exactly what was missing. Women want to be followed in pregnancy, they want to know how to breastfeed correctly, they want to talk about health and contraception. They continue to desire a future ».
Yet even inside the clinic, the war enters. “In recent months I have learned to understand the type of missile from the sound it does. Children waiting for mothers out of visiting rooms sometimes go to cry for the sound of a drone. We all internalized a constant tension level. But we don’t stop ».
«Our local staff is extraordinary. Some colleagues have lost their house, others live in extreme conditions, but they never stopped coming to work. One of them said to me: “I can’t take care of myself, but I can cure others”. This is the spirit that keeps us up ».
The dignity, here, is also to spend a hand in a child’s hair, guarantee a visit to a pregnant woman, give advice with a smile.
“The other day a young mother, who came for the post -birth visit, told us: “I just wanted to know if I’m doing everything well”. He thanks us a thousand times. Our words, here, have a huge value. Because they are a sign that are not sun ».
Al-Qarara, a new clinic for the Strip
Despite the logistical difficulties, the lack of materials and a conflict that does not give respite, Emergency has inaugurated a new clinic In the locality of Al-Qarara, within the so-called “humanitarian area” in the Governorate of Khan Youunis. A structure that aims to provide primary health care to a basin of about ten thousand people, in a context in which almost 90% of the population lives in makeup curtains or shelters.
“Despite the beginning of the truce, the needs of the population remain enormous,” explains Francesco Sacchi, head of Emergency in Gaza. “This clinic is a concrete answer, even if we know that it will take a long time to treat the wounds of this war.”
The structure, organized in multiple clinics, emergency room, observation room, a gynecological area and a pharmacy, is managed by a mixed staff of local and international operators. It will allow you to treat up to 300 patients per day, responding to increasingly widespread pathologies due to inhuman living conditions: gastroenteritis, respiratory infections, dermatitis.
“We have witnessed over seven thousand patients from August 2024 – says Giorgio Monti, medical coordinator -. The population is exhausted. Even those who tried to return to their homes, found them razed to the ground. And many have returned to live in the curtains. The reconstruction will be long and difficult ».
According to estimates, 69% of the buildings in the strip were destroyed, 92% of these were homes. Eighteen hospitals on thirty -six are partially functioning. And while looking for long-term solutions, structures such as Al-Qarara represent a fundamental order.
A dove for peace
From 10 to 13 April, in hundreds of Italian squares it will be possible Buy the “Colomba della Pace” of Emergency, The Easter dessert that supports the organization’s projects in the Gaza Strip. The initiative has a symbolic and practical value: it finances the NGO clinics and recalls, in days of celebration, that peace is still far away.
“We want to ask for an immediate fire, the protection of civilians and access to humanitarian aid», Dioce Emergency.
The Colomba weighs 750 grams, is made with whole almonds and Sicilian candied oranges, and is distributed in the shopper of the R1pud1a campaign, inspired by article 11 of the Italian Constitution. Cost: 20 euros. It is also available online and in the Emergency stores in Milan, Turin, Rome and Genoa. By purchasing it, it contributes to Keep the health facilities of the NGO in the strip standing: The new Al-Qarara clinic and the CFTA clinic in Al-Mawasi, where hundreds of patients are caught every day, often without everything.
In a territory where, from October 2023, there are over 50 thousand deaths and 113 thousand wounded, every gesture of solidarity can make the difference. Also a dessert. Also a dove.
