16 April 2008. Today CARE West Bank and Gaza started a four-day workshop on sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS. 12 women doctors are attending from Hebron, Jenin, Nablus, and Bethlehem. They are staff members of the Ministry of Health, Palestine Medical Relief Society, and Health Work Committees. The trainees are serving 85 communities in the West Bank. They are working on the project for Emergency Assistance to Sustain Health Care services in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, funded by the European Commission's Directorate General for Humanitarian Aid.
The training, taking place in Ramallah, is offered by Palestinian doctors and experts, in coordination with the School of Community Health in the Palestine Medical Relief Society. Cost of the training is approximately $ 10,000 offered by a private donor; James A. Vedder, through CARE USA. Goal of the training is to strengthen primary health care systems in the marginalized areas of the West Bank, by enhancing the capacity of female doctors to address reproductive health issues with focus on sexually transmitted infections.
In general the numbers of reported sexually transmitted infections is quite small in the Palestinian areas, but the data is not highly reliable. Anyway there is not much awareness regarding sexually transmitted infections, so it is important to train the female doctors on such topics, to help raise awareness among the women in the marginalized communities.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
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