US$2.35m for Project Rozana
Hundreds of Palestinian and Israeli nurses will be trained together as part of a new project administered and deployed through the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and funded by the MEPPA Partnership for Peace Fund .
Ron Finkel
A grant of US$2.35million to international NGO PROJECT ROZANA , will be used over three years to fund the establishment of a Palestinian-Israeli Specialist Nursing Hub comprising four Palestinian and four Israeli hospitals.
The program will provide clinical training and professional development to 480 Palestinian and Israeli nurses. Through peace-building seminars, real-time consultation, and regular case-sharing between participating nurses, the objective is to improve healthcare for patients at facilities in the West Bank and Israel and build cross-border relationships between nurses.
The grant to Project Rozana is significant recognition of its work in advancing peacebuilding between Israelis and Palestinians. Project Rozana promotes cross-border cooperation and strengthens the Palestinian health system.
Kenneth Bob, Chair of Project Rozana USA, welcomed the grant, saying “it is a significant example of the power of development funds to leverage capacity building and peacebuilding outcomes in the region”.
Former Obama Israeli-Palestinian Envoy, Ambassador Martin Indyk, a member of the Project Rozana Advisory Council, said the announcement was a “powerful endorsement of Project Rozana’s peacebuilding efforts. These USAID funds are being deployed to strengthen essential, broad-based people-to-people engagements. This helps lay the foundation for sustainable peace-making,”.
Professor Dame Anne Marie Rafferty, Chair of the Project Rozana Nurses Committee, and immediate past president of the Royal College of Nursing (UK) said that “nurses are at the forefront of building health capacity globally. Doing it in a context where there is the added benefit of strengthening cross-border professional relationships, as planned by Project Rozana, is a significant bonus. Nurses are highly respected in their communities and positive influencers”.
Ron Finkel, Founder and Chair of Project Rozana, said the grant reflects the commitment of the US Congress to peacebuilding in the Middle East. “It offers us the opportunity to, on a significant scale, move people forward positively, from fear and distrust, to hope, a commodity that has been in short supply for far too long in this region”
Finkel mentions the failure of Peace due to Fear and Mistrust in my view much of it caused by fellow Progressives in particular New Israel Fund Palestinian activism and the their ongoing vilification of Israel, an organisation Finkel supports >