Mrs. Ban Soon-taek, wife of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, visited the Lutheran World Federation’s campus in East Jerusalem on February 2, 2012.  Mrs. Ban, who has for many years devoted her attention to women’s and children’s health, was accompanied by Mr. Felipe Sanchez, Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Operations in the West Bank.

Dr. Tawfiq Nasser, CEO of Augusta Victoria Hospital (AVH), and Rev. Mark Brown, the Regional Representative of the Lutheran World Federation in Jerusalem and the Middle East, received the guests and spoke about the historic relationship between AVH and UNRWA, as well as present day issues of access to healthcare facing Palestinians.

The LWF began working with UNRWA and the International Committee of the Red Cross more than sixty years ago in order to establish Augusta Victoria as a hospital for refugees. With significant support from UNRWA, AVH became the largest hospital in the area and played a key role in the provision of secondary healthcare to Palestinian refugees after the 1948 war.

Today, AVH is a leading specialty hospital in East Jerusalem and continues to serve Palestinian refugees in this capacity.  The AVH Cancer Care Center is the only facility in the West Bank and Gaza where Palestinians can receive radiation treatment.   Many referrals come directly from the all-female team of Palestinian physicians, nurses and technicians that staff the hospital’s Mobile Mammography Unit, which strives to identify women with breast cancer at an early stage.

GENEVA, 17 January 2012 (LWI) – Lutheran World Federation (LWF) General Secretary Rev. Martin Junge has called the certification of the LWF by a global quality assurance body a milestone for the communion of churches.

Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP) International announced on 17 January that the LWF had achieved certification against its 2010 Standards in Accountability and Quality Management, which seek to ensure that the power of humanitarian actors is exercised responsibly with regards to disaster-affected communities.

“The certification underlines the LWF’s commitment to the values of accountability and transparency as expressed in the LWF Strategy 2012-2017,” Junge said. “At the same time it deepens the notion of accountability by providing a strong focus to the people the LWF works with.”

The certification by the humanitarian community’s foremost independent self-regulatory body covers all activities–including advocacy, development work and emergency preparedness and response–implemented by the LWF’s Department for World Service (DWS). It follows audits of DWS Geneva in November 2011 and DWS Nepal in December 2011, and is valid for three years.

Members of the Gaurishankar Women Cooperative formed by LWF Nepal in Ramechham district. The successful audit of the LWF/DWS country program in Nepal was an important step to HAP certification. © LWF Nepal

The multi-agency initiative noted that only two corrective actions were needed and affirmed “the dedication and hard work of [LWF] management and staff” which had made possible “this major achievement.”

DWS Director Rev. Eberhard Hitzler said the HAP certification offered an external confirmation that the LWF is serving people in need in the best possible way by putting them at the center of its actions.

“The HAP certification has motivated all of us to constantly reflect and improve our strategy and action to ensure that people in need are accompanied and their rights respected and upheld,” he commented.

“We are committed to meet the highest standards for transparency in humanitarian aid also in the future,” Hitzler added and underlined the contribution of DWS international and local staff to establishing well-functioning programs and management systems.

Maryssa Camaddo, LWF/DWS Program Officer for Quality and Accountability, noted that the HAP certification process had been a learning process.

“Being accountable to the people we work with helps develop quality programs that meet the people’s rights and needs, and reduces the possibility of any abuse or corruption,” said Camaddo, who coordinates the department’s efforts to ensure accountability in its systems and practices.

“Accountability processes that are managed effectively help organizations to perform better,” she added.

Junge said he looks forward to continuing to take lessons from the certification process to the whole of the LWF. “This certification process has actually assisted us in expressing anew the important Lutheran insight of the accountability to the neighbor as an expression of faithfulness to God.”

http://lwfworldservice.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/lwf-department-for-world-service-dws-certification-shows-people-at-center-of-humanitarian-response/

Rev. Mark Brown, Regional Representative for the LWF in Jerusalem, set the context for the conference with a summary of the history of the LWF work in healthcare in the region and reflections on the AVH mission and its continued commitment to caring for the whole person.

Bishop Dr. Munib Younan of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL), who also serves as Chair of the AVH Board of Governance and President of the LWF, further elaborated on context and identity by delving into a Lutheran theological and diaconal understanding of the Church’s call in relation to health and wellness.

Referring to Martin Luther’s November 1527 response entitled “Whether One May Flee from a Deadly Plague,” Younan approached the role of the church in holistic healthcare from a “theology of neighborliness” and Jesus’ call to pastors and leaders to be as shepherds who are willing to lay down their lives for their sheep (John 10:11).

Younan further expanded on the diaconal roots of the ELCJHL that go back to 1851 and the arrival of four Daconesses from Kaiserwerth, Germany, and their mission to begin a school for the uplifting of young girls name Talitha Kumi.

Keynote Speaker Dr. Beate Jakob, from the German Institute for Medical Mission (DIFAEM) in Tübingen, Germany, provided an entry point for further discussion, raising questions of the role of the church in the field of health, the Christian understanding of health and its implications for a greater understanding of healing, and Christian health service examples from both the Global South and the Global North.

Under the motto of Faith in Leadership, the conference will continue through 16 November with a focus on the challenges of Context, Identity and Innovation. The conference includes global keynote presentations on the individual themes, multi-faith witness and worship. Subcategories of the conference will include streams on “Faith Base, Values, Diaconal Identity and Religious Health Assets;” and “Leadership and Capacity Building.”

This conference brings together praticipants gathered from around the world, including Germany, Great Britain, India, Mozambique, Norway, Palestine, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United States of America, and Zambia.

The Faith Based Health Care Network was founded on 3 November 2008 in Atlanta, Georgia as “a network of leaders in Faith-based healthcare focusing on local expressions of practice.” The network brings together many different types of actors and organizations for the purpose of mutual support and inspiration.

To view more photos from the opening session and reception, click here or on the photo above. To learn more about the conference, or the Faith Based Health Care Network, click here to visit the conference website. To learn more about the AVH and the regional work of the LWF, click here.

(Article posted 14 November 2011 on the ELCJHL website: http://www.elcjhl.org/news/2011/2011.11_november.asp#healthcare)

Some of the oil is used in the Augusta Victoria Hospital kitchen. The rest is available to LWF visitors and friends, accompanied by hand-blown glass decanters made with recycled glass by Palestinian artisans working in Hebron. The oil is distributed around the world to raise money for Augusta Victoria Hospital programs.

Students from the LWF Vocational Training Program assist with the annual olive harvest. This group of students participated in the harvest on 21 October 2011.

Geneva, 28 October (LWF) — Jerusalem’s Augusta Victoria Hospital (AVH) has passed its first Quality Assurance Team for Radiation Oncology (QUATRO) audit by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), says the hospital’s head.

“The QUATRO is a comprehensive audit of radiotherapy practices and a tool for quality improvement,” said Dr. Tawfiq A. Nasser, the Chief Executive Officer of the AVH. QUATRO “is however authorized to shut down any machine, unit, or facility that is deemed unsafe or operating below standards.”

Since 1950, the AVH has been the centerpiece Jerusalem program of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), a member of ACT Alliance.

Augusta Victoria Hospital - Photo copyright B Moyer

AVH now functions as an institution within the Palestinian healthcare system. It was the first such audit conducted by the IAEA on a Palestinian institution, conducted on the week of 3 October. The next audit will take place in about four years.

AVH’s main task has been to provide services for Palestinian Refugees in cooperation with UNRWA, the United Nations agency responsible for refugee programs in the Holy Land region since 1948.

“The hospital passed,” said Dr. Nasser. “The unit was deemed to be safe in practice and following all the approved guidelines for treatment in radiation oncology internationally”

Nasser noted, “The hospital also received very constructive comments on how to develop the service for future demands in cancer care.”

When he was in Geneva in September, Dr. Nasser told LWI, “AVH is a leading institution in health and advanced care …. It has excellence in health care and advocating health. It represents a living Christian institution, not just Crusader churches built a few hundred years ago.”

The recent audit was done voluntarily and AVH applied to have it done.

Nasser said the Israeli Ministry of Health had also wanted it to be done. Representatives of the Israeli ministry attended and listened to the recommendations as they were passed on verbally by the inspection team.

“A senior oncologist was also present from the Palestinian Ministry of Health to hear the results.  I await the full detailed technical report from the Agency but now we know that we have passed it,” said Nasser.

The audit also authorizes conducting further investigations and repeat QUATRO audits, if the facility is in need of continuous monitoring.  In this case it did not need such monitoring.

The QUATRO Team also gave the hospital constructive and important tips on how to proceed with future challenges in the field of radiation oncology.

“Partnerships with hospitals like Radium in Oslo and KHCC in Jordan will be essential to further train and develop our staff,” noted Nasser.

http://lwfworldservice.wordpress.com/2011/10/28/jerusalem-iaea-gives-lwf%e2%80%99s-augusta-victoria-hospital-green-light/

Anna can be reached at anna@lwfjerusalem.org.

Many thanks to Brittany Moyer, who served as the LWF Jerusalem intern/program assistant for the past two years.  We are sad to see her go, but are excited for her in her new endeavors.  Brit will return to Takoma Park, MD, to work part-time while applying to graduate school to earn a Masters in Public Health.

The letter has been posted on the ELCA website: http://www.elca.org/Our-Faith-In-Action/Justice/Advocacy/Issues/Israel-Palestine.aspx

The full statement can be found here: http://www.actalliance.org/stories/political-stalement-over-palestine-must-end-act

The Lutheran World Federation is a founding member of the ACT Alliance (Action by Churches Together), an alliance of 111 churches and church-related organisations that work together in humanitarian assistance, advocacy and development. The alliance works in 140 countries and mobilises US$1.6 billion annually in its work for a just world.