RCPCH, Palestine and Palestinian refugees: a timeline
From the presidency of Professor David Baum (1997-99), forging deep links with colleagues working in conflicts, including in the Middle East and in Palestine, RCPCH senior members have developed and extended professional relationships with partners in Palestine. This ranges from the Palestinian Society of Paediatrics to Juzoor for Health and Development and the Al Quds Medical School, with whom the College established and eventually handed over a full Diploma in Child Health in the mid-2000s.
From 2014, RCPCH Global worked with the UK Department for International Development and the Tropical Health and Education Trust (THET) to design and deliver a collaborative programme supporting paediatric clinicians, academics and local therapeutic organisations, including in partnership with the Islamic University at Gaza, to integrate pathways for identification and management of childhood disabilities in the West Bank and Gaza.
From the late 2010s, RCPCH Global built on its longstanding association with Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) evolving into a programme partnership from 2021, with financial support from a generous legacy, to work with United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, and the Palestinian Disability Forum, to develop a strategic response to neglected early childhood development – with a specific focus on poorly prevented, identified and managed developmental delays, cognitive impairments and resulting lifelong disabilities among children in the major Palestinian refugee camps the length and breadth of Lebanon.
In 2024, with starkly deteriorating conditions for family welfare and health care provision in Gaza, RCPCH Global extended its partnership with MAP and UNICEF to support continuing care, through remote technical consultation, teaching and training, for newborns at two independent hospital facilities still functioning in Gaza’s northern sector.
Looking ahead, our enduring focus will continue to be supporting families and children, including those caught up in humanitarian crisis and conflict around the world, whoever they are, and wherever they may be, alongside the health professionals who support them.