Donations:
Check in U.S. Dollar can be made out to: Local Committee for Disabled and Rehabilitation and sent to Shufat Camp Jerusalem PO Box 55145 Jerusalem Israel.

Bridging of Cultures with Integrative Manual Therapy

The project: Bridging of Cultures with Integrative Manual Therapy (IMT) will be managed by Ann Admon, a certified Physical Therapist and certified Integrative Manual Therapist.

IMT is a therapy developed by Sharon Weiselfish Giammatteo, PhD, PT. It is an all encompassing therapy evaluating and treating systems of the body, (ie) MusculoSkeletal, Digestive, Circulatory, Visceral and Nervous system.

Ann Admon is an Israeli citizen, American born, Jewish by religion and lives in Jerusalem.

By treating with this hands-on therapy, healing on many levels can take place. Physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.

It can bring about better health, lessen pain and stress and address disabilities caused by traumatic and/or emotional injuries. This treatment can also address physical and emotional issue among the many children who live here. Many of the children have impaired physical development and learning disabilities.

But foremost this project is about acknowledging the suffering of a people with the same dreams and hope for a better future, as we all have, for themselves, their children and future generations.

It is about the bridging of cultures, Palestinian and Israeli, we are all brothers and sisters. It is about changing belief systems, showing compassion and love.

People are People are People.

For the first year, the target will be people of all ages in the Shufat Refugee camp with physical impairments, health issues of all kinds and learning disabilities.

In the future we hope to be able to expand and have other therapists with IMT training or other alternative therapies, come to help treat, as many people as possible, in this camp or other needed areas in the Israel.

Ann Admon, PT, IMTC will start by working 3 times a week, 7 hours a day.

The treatment will be done in Shufat Refugee Camp, at the center for Rehabilitation.

Each treatment will be 30 minutes minimum, thus enabling 10-14 people to be treated a day.

The estimated budget is $30-40,000 per year. The initial year’s budget includes a modest salary for the therapists and some administrative help, 2 massage tables and treatment chairs, pillows, blankets, sheet, office materials, a CD player and discs, a computer, a share of the utilities bill.

The Bank account for donations is:
BENF. NAME
BENF. A/ C: 9030-000000-0-000
ARAB BANK P.L.C
ALBIREH BR .
AL NAHD ST.
P.O.BOX 3731
TEL :+970 2 2959581
FAX:+970 2 2959588.

For more information please contact Dr. Salim Anati, Chairman of the Al Quds Society. Email: Salim_anati@hotmail.com

OR

To contact Ann Admon, PT, IMTC, please email BridgingCultures@TheBurnhamReview.com

Ann Admon, PT, IMTC is contributing to the peace process in the Middle East. An American born, Jewish Israeli, Ann is volunteering on a weekly basis at the Shufat Refugee Camp in Jerusalem. She is bridging cultures by using Integrative Manual Therapy, a unique form of hands-on therapy to treat Palestinian refugees.

Run under the auspices of the Al Quds Charitable Society for Disabled and Rehabilitation Shufat Camp Jerusalem is situated about 4 km from Jerusalem, surrounded by Israeli colonies. It hosts 22000 persons: 9872. All are officially declared refugees by UNRWA, but a proper census has never been carried out. On the average the families are composed of 7.73 persons and the average age is 17. Shufat Refugee camp was created in 1966,when the Jordanian Government and the UN made the Palestinian habitants relocate, with the promise of new houses and land to cultivate.

More new refugees arrived in 1967 when the Israeli soldiers occupied Jerusalem and the West bank: the camp quickly became over populated, while the Israeli colonies grew bigger and bigger.

This is why we now have the population living in very difficult conditions. These Palestinian people are poor and isolated. The young people are without any possibilities of work. Children are without any leisure time activities.

Year by year, the population of the camp has grown much more than the normal birth rate (6.3 per 1000 inhabitants). In fact, a constant flow of exiles from Jerusalem who were evicted from their houses, or were indirectly expelled through the depauperising and social isolation which is happening in East Jerusalem.

The last newcomers are often in the worst shape psychologically, economically and culturally, when compared to earlier refugees. Ninety percent of them live under a minimum poverty standard.

The Al Quds society for Rehabilitation and Special Education in Shufat camp is a voluntary committee that was founded in 1993 in co-ordination with UNRWA. It is one of the most active committees in Shufat camp. It provides many services for the handicapped and disabled especially and for the whole community in general.

The social center at the committee in many activities such as:
1.Girls rehabilitation with handwork\
2.Program for special education
3.House visits for the poor
4.Summer and Winter camps
5.Lectures and symposiums on all subjects
6.Physical Therapy
7.Special classes for severely mentally retarded children
8.A Toy Library
9.Speech therapy

The local committee depends largely on financial aid, on donations and contributions from different sources, such as UNRWA citizen donations in addition to the fees collected from training, which are mostly symbolic.