Norwac - The Norwegian Aid Committee

English translation: Erik Abild, NORWAC
Laparoscopic surgery is well known in Norway, but at the Palestinian Makassed Hospital in East Jerusalem, they are just starting. Professional expertise from Oslo University Hospital, Ullevål, plays an important role in cooperation with the humanitarian organisation NORWAC.

Laparoscopy, the medical name of surgery done laparoscopically, requires expensive and specialised equipment. Earlier at Makassed Hospital, they did not have such equipment, but with the assistance of funds from NORWAC, the hospital now has the necessary equipment. Since 2008, they have received training in procedures and equipment, and they are now using it daily at the gynaecological department. Since January, there has been Norwegian doctors and nurses at Makassed for 8 weeks. They have primarily come from Ullevål hospital, but also one gynaecologist from A-hus hospital. Currently, they are doing follow-up work.

Fifteen years ago NORWAC started a project to raise the standard of the library at Shifa hospital in Gaza. In the late nineties it emerged as a good, modern library. Spacious rooms, a good book collection, a useful collection of journals, open to health professionals from outside the hospital, computer cataloging, Medline on CD-ROM, and more.

Then one problem came after the other: the second intifada, pressured economy, Israeli closure of Gaza, and – last but not least - the war last winter. Much has gone from bad to worse in Gaza. That goes for Gaza Health Sciences Library at Shifa also.

Image: Salim El Bast is Library Director of Bireh Public Library, one of Noursofts long-standing customers on the West Bank. To the left Erling Bergan from Librarians Union of Norway. He is in Palestine to get the rebuilding Gaza Health Sciences Library started.