A new health clinic opened in Al Ma'asara in southern Bethlehem will give residents of the southern cluster villages access to comprehensive local health care for the first time. The clinic offers services previously unavailable not only to the residents of Al Ma'asara, but also to some 7,700 residents of the Bethlehem southern cluster villages.

Services offered by the clinic include an emergency room, child immunisation, family planning, a women's health clinic, as well as a pharmacy. For unemployed and under-employed families living below the poverty line who are unable to make the trip to the closest city of Bethlehem for health care service, this clinic is a dream come true.

'World Vision has been our lanterns, our candles that have helped light our way', said Mohammad Breijiya, a member of the World Vision Bethlehem Area Development Programme Al Ma'asara Steering Committee and an Arabic teacher in the Zawahra School, at the opening of the Health Clinic. The Ministry of Health, the German Bank, United Nations Development Programme, World Vision, and other organisations were in fact all responsible for establishing the much-needed clinic.

The Al Ma'asara clinic also plays a part in World Vision's broader work towards better health for children, which will be highlighted this month when the organisation launches 'Child Health Now' - its first global child health campaign, which promotes the Millennium Development Goals four and five to reduce child deaths (under-5) by two-thirds and reduce maternal deaths by three quarters globally. Child Health Now also aims to raise awareness of, and provoke greater public discourse about, child mortality; and inform and persuade decision-makers and governments to do all they can to keep children healthy.

Despite the great diversity in the communities that World Vision serves in the Middle East and Eastern Europe Region and further afar, projects like the Al Ma'asara clinic contribute to a better and healthier future that all families want.

'We're alike because we all care about the health of our families. We're alike because we all want a good education for our children, we all want to live in peace, and we all want to provide a good life for our families. We're alike because we all want to build a brighter future for our children', said Joe Harbison, National Director for World Vision in Jersualem-West Bank-Gaza.

Looking toward the future, Fatima Breijiya, mother of Mohammad, known to the community as 'Um Hassan' eloquently said, 'We will transform this clinic into a place that cures.'

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