$1.2 million grant for Project Rozana
Project Rozana, an international charity dedicated to building the health capacity of Palestinian society by leveraging Israel’s world-class healthcare system has been awarded a €741,286 (A$1,193,650) grant by the European Union (EU).
Ron Finkel
The funds will expand the work of the Binational School of Psychotherapy (BNSP), a unique training program based at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. The BNSP was established in 2016 to train Palestinian and Israeli child psychologists in the latest strategies and techniques for dealing with children in the region suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Israeli and Palestinian psychotherapists working in the field of child and adolescent mental health participate in the program.
Project Rozana will also fund the BNSP to undertake curriculum development and accreditation by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Melbourne-based Ron Finkel, founder of Project Rozana and Chair of Project Rozana International said: “Since 1998, the EU has been actively supporting civil society initiatives in the Middle East. There is no shortage of worthy recipients, but through its EU Peacebuilding Initiative, they have chosen to make this grant to a relatively new organisation.
Even more impressive is that it represents 7.9% of the total grant available in this funding round. I believe it’s a deep endorsement of our work, our values and the importance of building cross-border professional networks. It also recognises Project Rozana’s support for children from Israel and Palestine who are dealing with many trauma-related issues resulting from the ongoing conflict, and other issues like bullying, domestic violence and sexual abuse”
John Lyndon, Executive Director of Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP) said that with the Trump Administration’s decision to cut the cross-border component of USAID’s longstanding Conflict Management and Mitigation (CMM) Fund, the EUPI is now the largest pot of resources available to projects with Israeli and Palestinian cooperation at their core.
“We welcome the EU’s decision to support innovative cross-border actors like Project Rozana, who are focused on providing tangible, positive outcomes for at-risk communities, while simultaneously disrupting a status quo that keeps Israelis and Palestinians apart, and an unjust status quo intact.”
Understanding Project Rozana
Project Rozana operates with three primary aims: the Training of Palestinian healthcare workers in Israel with the expectation that they will return and build the health capacity of Palestinian society; the free Transport of mainly Palestinian children and a care-giver from their homes in the West Bank and Gaza to the checkpoints and from there to hospital in Israel (through partnerships with other NGOs); and the Treatment of Palestinian children in Israeli hospitals when the services to deal with their complex medical needs are either unavailable or in limited supply in Palestinian hospitals.
