As the world reels from violence and terror in the Holy Land in the lead up to Christmas, Christian World Service’s long-term development partner ‘Department of Service to Palestinian Refugees’ (DSPR) is still offering care to Palestinians living in refugee camps in neighbouring countries. 

This Christmas Anglicans around Aotearoa can support Palestinian women caring for their babies and children up to age 6 with a ‘Gifted’ catalogue donation to the Well Baby Clinic in Madaba Refugee Camp in Jordan.

Many Palestinian refugee families have no choice but to live in cramped, unhygienic refugee camps with inadequate basic infrastructure and poor health facilities, which makes caring for small children hard. 

At the Jordan Camp's Well Baby Clinic – which is run by the Middle East Council of Churches’ Department of Service to Palestinian Refugees – medical staff monitor mothers’ health and their babies’ development, providing treatment, nutritional supplements, practical needs and support.  

At a clinic in July this year in the Madaba camp, more than 100 Palestinian women and children came in for education on general health and hygiene, including respiratory conditions common in the camp, and each received a mother and baby health pack which included nappies and other essentials. 

DSPR reports that clinics improve overall early childhood health for those that attend, and also pick up on special needs, such as a child which this year was diagnosed with severe anaemia and received lifesaving specialist help after attending a clinic open day.

The CWS Gifted ‘Mother and Baby Health’ packs help fund not only practical supplies, but pays for the clinic’s paediatrician and gynaecologist who provide medical care, and medical educators who support families doing their best to stay healthy in difficult conditions.

Purchase the CWS “Mother and Baby Health’ Christmas gift for NZ$50.00 here.

View the full range of CWS Gifted Christmas gift options here.