I’m here in Israel with my client, Rozana. Founded in 2013, Rozana works with medical diplomacy, peace through healthcare. It’s an amazing organization that partners Israeli hospitals and medical related organizations with Palestinian hospitals and medical related organizations. As I reviewed their website and the programs they run, I became excited about the opportunity to work with them. I had many friends who shook their heads, wished me good luck, in what they thought was a hopeless effort.

This week Rozana brought members of their international board for site visits to see the work first hand. I was invited to join them and jumped at the chance to see the work in person and to meet the people doing the work and those impacted by it. The President of their American, Australian, UK, and Israeli branches all joined us along with the president of Rozana International and the CEO, CFO, and COO along with a few other members of team. It is an impressive group of people who I have gotten to know very quickly and really like.

Today we visited Hebron. I’ve been there before but only in the small, Jewish part. I loved the small Jewish part and the time I spent at the tombs of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs is indescribable. This was the Palestinian side. I didn’t know what to expect. Our first stop was in the village of Beit Oula, on the outskirts of Hebron. Rozana’s women4women mobile clinic was there. When we arrived, there was an educational session happening about menstrual health. We take for granted that women know about this but in remote areas of area C, that isn’t the case. I watched as these women listened intently to the doctor who was educating them. They do this type of education about women’s health every time the mobile clinic arrives. The clinic has everything needed for women’s health – all the equipment including sonograms, glucometers, fetal heart monitors, etc. This type of healthcare is not availble to the women in the remote areas the clinic serves and they wouldn’t have any access with Rozana. We heard from the woman who lets Rozana use her space for free about how important this was. We heard from the Program Manager about her experiences and the impact they are having. We heard from the head doctor, a midwife, and a phsychologist about the work they do and how impactful it is. They told us about a woman who was diagnosed at a regular clinic with ovarian cysts. It turned out she was 4 months pregnant. Another woman who was having a medical emergency that the clinic diagnosed quickly and was able to get her to an Israel hospital in time for her to deliver the baby and to save her life. Without Rozana and the women4women clinic, both these women would have died.

The clinic was donated by the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) and is staffed by Palestinian women doctors, nurses, midwives, physical therapists, physchologists, and physiotherapists. It is a true multi-disciplanary team, all provided by Rozana. They visit 3 villages every week. They used to visit 5 villages a week, however the settler violence has made it unsafe for the Rozana staff to go to some of the places they used to go. One of the women who came for the clinic shared how the settlers attacked the 12 women coming the night before and as a result, she was the only one who was willing to walk there today. She had to go the long way and it took her 2 hours to get there and it would be two hours to walk home. She missed the educational part but was going to be able to get the medical care she needed. She told us how important this was to her and she wasn’t willing to miss it.

I was blown away by the work. Seeing the impace on these women, hearing their stories, and seeing the care, committment and passion of these doctors and nurses was inspiritng. I’ve written about my need for hope and the time spent in Beit Oula with the women4women mobile clinic did a lot to inspire me. It’s something the media never covers. Stories of Israeli and Palestinian partnership that you will never hear about. A possible future that the political leaders throughout the world say they want to see but I’m not sure they really do.

Our second stop was at Al Ahli hospital in Hebron. We met with the head of the hospital along with the board of directors, all men except for the board president, who was a woman. They were all successful businessmen who care about healthcare and want to make the hospital great. Al Ahli hospital partners with both Sheba hospital and Hadassah hospital. Once again, nothing you would hear in the news – Israeli hospitals partnering with Palestinian hospitals. But it is happening and in a very meaningful way. Rozana partnered with Al Ahli hospital to train 16 pediatric and adult ICU doctors. Those 16 were given the skills to both use and to teach others. Since that training by Rozana, Al Ahli hospital has trained more than 100 additional ICU doctors. Talk about a return on investment! The hospital provides more than 34 clinics to the people, including project smile where they repair things like cleft palates.

The hospital staff and board were amazing. Friendly. Kind. They had incredible fruit and juices out for us to eat. They brought us coffee (if you’ve never had the deep, dark, powerful Arab coffee you don’t know what you are missing). As we talked about opportunities, it was exciting to see how much they wanted our partnership and how important it is to the hospital and the key decision makers. Another story the media will never tell you. Another narrative blocked from the world view.

Our final stop in Hebron was at the Al Rakma Rehabilitation hospital. This is a brand new rehabilitation hospital that is set to open in the next few weeks that will be operated by the Green Land Society for Health Development. It was still under construction when we visited today. This brand new, 7 story hospital is designed by Dr. Akram Amro with incredible foresight and thought. They will provide physical therapy, prosthetics, hydrotherapy, and trauma recovery for neurological, orthopedic, and pediatric patients. Partnering with Alyn Children’s Hospital to train their doctors, nurses, physical therapists, physiotherapists, and support staff how to work with children with disabilities, Al Rakma will be at the cutting edge of rehabilitation treatment.

Rozana has been working with them for years, starting with their Wheels of Hope program that helps ambulences get critically ill pacients out of the West Bank to Israeli hospitals. Often times the delay due to security or there being no ambulance to take them to an Israeli hospital has dire results. They then moved on to partnering on the women4women project. Next was the Day After project – the need for a rehabilitation hospital. Rozana was involved with funding the construction project, one of the very few capital projects the will do, because of how compelling the need is along with the power of Dr. Akram Amro’s vision. As part of this program, Al Rakma is copying the work done in Israel by Yad Sarah, in loaning out medical equipment. They started with wheelchairs and are growing and moving forward with other items. Ultimately, when the time is right, they want to bring 120 children from Gaza who need rehabilitation, prostetics, OT, PT, and/or mental health treatment. For children, who rapidly outgrow their prostetics, the plan is to 3-D print them so they are inexpensive and easily replaceable. Dr. Amro is brilliant and hearing him talk through his plans was exciting.

Over lunch, I had a chance to spend some time in deep conversation with a few of the Palestinian doctors who are connected to Dr. Amro and the Al Rakma hospital. One of them, Muhammad, was beyond inspiring. He did his training outside the West Bank and finished his studies in Turkey. He chose to return to the West Bank to teach at the University. As we talked, I realized how much we had in common. He talked about the evil of Hamas and how if they were ever to take over in the West Bank how he would leave immediately. He complained about a lack of diversity in the medical school and his desire to have people from other countries; France, Spain, Germany, the US, and even Israel studying in the West Bank. The need for exposure to other cultures was critical to ensure a future with peace and harmony. It was inspiring to hear his passion about a better future. We scanned our WhatsApp codes to keep in touch and he invited me on my next visit to come visit the University. I plan to take him up on the offer.

Our final site visit was at Magen David Adom (MDA). What would MDA have to do with Palestinians? A new program created in partnership with Rozana is teaching Arabs and Jewish women how to be ambulance drivers. Along with regular driving, this 9 month program teaches them all Hebrew (many of the Israelis had made aliyah and struggled with Hebrew), phlebotomy, and how to be a first responder. Each of the women told their story and it was fascinating to hear what brought them to the program, what their desire was, and what they planned to do next. One woman came from a religious muslim family. Another came from a religious Jewish family that she had left behind. She talked about having never met a Palestinian before or eating their food, and then commented how delicious it was. All the women talked about how the program had brought them in touch with people different from them and how grateful they were they had this opportunity. They talked about how close they had gotten and how it felt like family. What incredible success. Learning skills to not only get a job but also to save lives all while breaking down barriers and creating real realtionships between Israelis and Palestinians.

I wrote recently about my challenge in finding hope. Today was all about hope. Hope for a different and better future. Hope for a different and better today. Lots of people talk about potential peace between Israel and Palestine. Rozana is making it happen every single day. To hear about the partnerships between Israeli and Palestinian hospitals that is happening right now, every day, was inspiriing. Meeting the nurses and doctors trained in Israeli hospitals and then taking that knowledge to train their peers was inspiring. Hearing the gratitidue from Palestinian women about the opportunities that Rozana and their Israeli peers have given them was inspiring. Thee are real people, living every day with things we only read about in the newspaper or hear about on the news telling and showing us a different reality, a different today, and the possibility for a very different future. As somebody who believes the the Jews aren’t going anywhere and the Palestinians aren’t going anywhere either, so we have to find a way to live together, I saw that today in all four site visits. I saw a future that I struggled to hold on to before seeing it live today. I added a few new Palestinian friends today to those I met during my Encounter program. Real people who want to live their lives in peace. Who invited me to visit their homes, meeting their families, and into their lives. Tomorrow we are off to Ramallah to see and learn more.

I am not naive that this will be easy. I don’t believe it will be simple. I don’t believe this will be quick. But I do believe that it is possible and can happen. That’s a far cry from the hopelessness that you get from the media and that friends and I have discussed repeatedly over lunch.

Hope isn’t dead when you open your eyes and see what is happening. Today with Rozana popped my eyes wide open. Today opened my heart. I still have lots of conflicting emotions and there are challenges ahead, but I see a pathway happening in real time, today. As I looked out over Jerusalem from our Rozana dinner at the sun setting on Jerusalem and the beauty of the night looking out over Jerusalem, I couldn’t help but being overcome with hope. With the ability to dream. And the desire to continue to struggle with my own beliefs while supporting those who are actively making this hope and dreams into reality. I have a part to play in building a better future for the world and I couldn’t be more grateful to Rozana for showing it to me.