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Apr122012
A Message from Luke Roberts @ Lifelines
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Dear Friends,

Thank you to all those who came to Lifelines’ fundraising event last week for St John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital (SJEH).  

Thank you to everyone who contributed to such a memorable night of great warmth and compassion.

Please click here for a brief round-up of the evening, which includes some fabulous photos by Alexandre Moreau...

What next?

Lifelines is taking a break over the summer to get a website up and running. Our next event, on Thursday 27thSeptember, will be promoting the work of the Sabre Trust, which builds schools in Ghana. We’ll send more details nearer the time.

Luke Roberts

Lifelines

Feb222012
Cataracts and Banksy
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I’d like to use this blog to advertise the work of Pictures on Walls, our most recent supporters! Pictures on Walls is a company that supply high quality limited edition prints from the most popular contemporary street artists. Banksy comes to mind, doesn’t he? Well, they’ve recently opened up a shop in Commercial Street, named by the Guardian newspaper as one of the ten best shops in East London. This shop is the ONLY venue to buy a real Banksy screen print!

Check out this article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2011/may/03/london-shopping-trips

…and also their website:

www.picturesonwalls.com

We are most grateful to Pictures on Walls for their generous donation which has allowed us to purchase an IOL Master for our Anabta clinic.

An IOL Master is a machine that takes different measurements of the eye lens before performing cataract surgeries. In the oPt, adult cataract accounts for 62% of all cases of blindness. This is shocking because cataracts can be easily treated and with surgery sight can be restored. This machine will help us in our mission to treat patients with cataracts. Thanks to Pictures on Walls for recognising the dire need for this machine and for kindly helping us purchase it.

I have to say they are probably one of the funkiest supporters we have. I might just try to buy a Banksy for myself this weekend :)

Have a good one.

Feb152012
Life in Many Voices
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Very excited to inform you all that we are going to be on BBC Radio next weekend! Entitled ‘Life in Many Voices’ the programme will be transmitted on the BBC World Service on:

Sunday 25th Feb @ 19.05pm GMT
Monday 26th Feb : 11.05
Monday 27th Feb @ 02.05

Hope you all can tune into one of the dates.

It’s really exciting as it is the first time (in my memory at least) we have been on the BBC. We are confident this will increase our support base as new people tune in and listen to the amazing work we do. The show will feature patients as well as staff at the hospital. The production team visited various villages in the West Bank and have some very interesting stories for you. It’s a show you will not want to miss!

Jan252012
2011 STATS!
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The stats are out and I’m very happy to tell you all that this year the Hospital Group treated a whopping 107,048 patients, out of which 35,986 under the age of 18. Despite the funding difficulties, our numbers are up on last year and we’re all very happy to have reached more people than we have ever done in the past.

The breakdown of number is as follows:

44,877 patients treated at the main hosptal in East Jerusalem.

22,358 patients treated at the Gaza clinic. in Gaza

12,617 patients treated at the Hebron Hospital. in Hebron

17,961 patients treated in Anabta

On top of that our Mobile Outreach team saw a total of 9,235 patients.

We would like to thank all our supporters and donors, without whom this level of clinical activity would not have been possible.

From all of us at SJEHG, many many thanks for all your kind support and generosity.

Jan182012
Blogging from Jerusalem!
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Dear People of the Blogosphere

I am actually sitting at my desk in an office in our Hospital in Jerusalem as I type this! It’s very cold, but the sun is shining and it’s good to be here.

The reason that I am here is to help refine our potential diabetic retinopathy screening programme, which – if it comes off – will see us working in partnership with The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in their camps in the south of the West Bank.

This is very exciting. Yesterday, we had a big meeting that included senior medical staff at the Hospital, Dr Jeanne Garth (Medical Director) and Ahmad, Ma’ali (Nursing Director), as well as Dr Umayyah Khammash, the head of the Department of Health at UNRWA. Everyone is very excited about the possibility of bringing the first ever screening programme for diabetic retinopathy to the oPt, but it’s a huge undertaking and will need a lot of cash!

I am busy updating the project proposal, so we will hopefully have some good news regarding the programme soon. ..

Otherwise, it is wonderful to be back. On Monday night I took a walk into the Old City but promptly got completely lost on the way back. I ended up in an ultra-orthodox Jewish community which, I have to admit, I found not a little intimidating. However, I was able to get back on track when I came upon the Nablus Road and was so pleased that – having been so lost, and it was dark by this time – I was able to find my way around the city – and home! – on only me second visit!

Tomorrow, I go to visit the UNRWA camp at Dheisheh, near Bethlehem, which will play a major part in the screening programme. I’m taking my camera, so watch this space on Friday!

Signing off for now from Jerusalem! Geof.
 

Jan62012
A Very Happy New Year to You All!
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Dear All

Apologies for the sporadic nature of our postings over the holiday period. As you will be able to imagine, it was all a bit hectic and not always easy to have someone be able to set aside the time to blog.

However, now that the trees have all been taken down and we’re all back at work again, hopefully we can resume our regular posts on Wednesdays and Fridays.

Indeed, things should get a lot more exciting very quickly! Now that we are into 2012, we can look forward to the beginning of our appeal to raise funds for a new Day Care Hospital in Gaza, to the completion of the Day Care Unit at our Jerusalem Hospital and to the long-overdue renovation of the Jerusalem 2nd Floor for use as an adult ward.

Followers on Facebook and Twitter continue to amass every day and we have a couple of exciting events (watch this space) coming up in London as we move towards spring. And, of course, we have the new edition of Jerusalem Scene to get our heads around.

All in all, the start of 2012 is full of hope and promise and we thank all of you who follow and support us and help to make vital, poverty-relieving eye care available to so many unable to afford – or even access – it themselves.

A very Happy New Year to everyone!

Geof.

Dec142011
Christmas in Palestine
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With Christmas 10 days away, I thought it a fitting topic for today’s blog.

There are a total of 331,000 Christian Palestinians living in the occupied Palestinian territory and surrounding areas. Christmas is very important in Palestine, as it contains Bethlehem, the town in which Jesus was born.

Christmas Eve in England often means getting knocked over every other step battling through the hectic town centre whilst doing the last bit of Christmas shopping. Christmas Eve in Palestine sees a parade through the town with an abundance of bagpipe bands! A tradition left over from when the British army occupied the area between 1920 and 1948.

Arguably the most famous part of Christmas in Bethlehem is the church service of the Mass of the Nativity. It is held on Christmas Eve in the afternoon, evening and at midnight in the Church of Nativity. This is where it is traditionally thought Jesus was born. There’s a small door into the church called the door of humility.

The most beautiful part of the service in the Church of Nativity is seeing the many local people, as well as the countless visitors from all over the world.  The church is so crowded and lots of frankincense is burnt.

Most importantly, of course, the Palestinian’s know how to create the best Christmas food ever!! And it’s all about the Lamb! What really distinguishes festivities in Palestine is the value of the dish, the scarcity of the cooked ingredients, and, in true gastro-spirit, the time and energy expended in its preparation and cooking.

The Christmas feast in Palestine also recognises the consumption of sweets such as Kunafeh and Katayef. Katayef is one of my favourite desserts, one of Nanny Constantine’s specialties, a creamy ricotta inside with a crispy outer layer of pastry goodness! If any of you feel like culinary master chefs this Christmas I strongly recommend you make this Arabic bite of heaven!

Christmas in Palestine is like Christmas everywhere, a time for Food, Family and Friends!

Merry Christmas from me and Happy Hugging Wednesday [it being Happy Hug Day an’ all!]

Natalia
 

Dec22011
Departures and Christmas Cards
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And so it’s Friday once again. Apologies for the lack of blogging emanating from the St John Eye Hospital London office – with annual leave and people leaving, it’s proven difficult to maintain momentum!

However, here we are back again. And this week has been dominated by former Head of the Fundraising and Marketing office in London, Nicky Wynne, moving on to pastures new. Wednesday was her last day at work here and we gave her a lovely send off, with guests looking in on us from the Order of St John and from further afield, too. Nicky was a wonderful boss to work for and will be missed by all in London – as well as by her colleagues in the oPt.

And if you look at our news section on the website, you’ll see that two other valued members of staff are also wending their ways to pastures new…

So – now we are a man down in the UK office! Although, having been Nicky’s deputy for four years, I believe that I am more than equipped to guide the team here through this interim period.

And, as we approach the end the year, we are very close indeed to our fundraising targets for 2011 – we just need to make that last minute push. So, if any of you have yet to organise your Christmas Cards, look no further and order them from us!

Thank you everyone – your support is always appreciated.

Best regards. Geof.
 

Nov232011
Howdy!
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My blog this week will be public affairs related!

I remember in my interview a lovely man who I now work alongside, asked me, “So do you know what Public Affairs is?” At this point, in my head I was thinking…”ERM EVERYTHING, what a broad question Mr!!!” A good few weeks later and I am now up to speed on the public affairs work he does.

So although Public Affairs does indeed encompass a little bit of everything – PR, Media, Communications – the side that I have been focussing on is St John Eye Hospital Group’s relationship with MPs, Peers and civil servants.

Over the past week I’ve devised a huge excel spread sheet of all the relevant people in any governmental position that have any interest in eye health, Palestine, the Middle East and international development. While hard work, my masterpiece has served me well today – as an information mind-map. The next step after research is to begin writing to all these interested individuals to attempt to organise some exploratory meetings as this type of individual would be a wonderful advocate of our worthy cause!

Nothing is more fulfilling than seeing how this all works in practice. Our Friday blogger, Geof, is off to Westminster tonight to see the action first hand. Leading Parliamentarians will be discussing why Palestine should be supported over the next year.

And as for me and figuring out what Public Affairs actually is, I guess I shall let you all know next week as, this Thursday, I will be off to a Public Affairs Christmas party in Westminster. How better to figure it all out?!

Until next time, Happy Wednesday.

Nov162011
A New Addition…
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Howdy! I’m Natalia, the new intern at the St John Eye Hospital Group London office. Thank you to Feryal for my introduction a few weeks back… A chest infection later and here I am back at work and attempting to write my first blog ever!

First order of business, I don’t know if you blog readers have been told how lovely and peaceful these offices are, well WOW, they are fantastic. In the middle of the hustle and bustle of London, the fitting tranquillity of Charterhouse Mews has made my first few weeks with the Eye Hospital rather enjoyable.

I shall keep it short and begin my tenure as a blogger by telling you all a little bit about myself. I attended one of the most interesting and surreal universities that I think exist, the London School of Economics. A rollercoaster three years ended with success, the only pit fall being the hub of narcissism that managed to capture my sole and I decided to go on to Law School. Two highly boring years passed a Law degree down and a Barristers course complete and there I sat surrounded by my four walls of disappointment thinking to myself law cannot be my life. So, I dug deep in to the depths of my desires and decided to dictate my future by what I really wanted to pursue. So here I am, interning at the beginning what I hope to be a successful few months.

Lastly, and because it’s brilliant, I urge you to watch the following documentary made by my flat mate’s cousin, Miss Jazzmin Jiwa. http://www.presstv.ir/Program/199951.html ENJOY!

Until next time

Happy Wednesday.

Natalia