COMMUNITY
An Ein El Hilweh hospital gets a new look
May, 2019
“This means a lot to me! I love that we are working to serve others.” --Mohammad, 19, Anera vocational student at Ein El Hilweh camp in Saida, Lebanon
Thanks to Anera’s commercial painting course students, the Green Crescent Charity Medical Center in Ein El Hilweh is getting a fresh coat of paint.
Vocational education and community service
Twenty of Anera's vocational training students in an advanced commercial painting and plastering course chose a newly reopened hospital in the Ein El Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp as the focus of their apprenticeship, helping to renovate the damaged second floor. With the support of the hospital administration, the students of Anera's course at MAAN Center for Youth and Childhood worked with a team of professionals to deepen their real-world project experience and serve the community at the same time. All of the students are residents of Ein El Hilweh camp.
"I believe that any hospital should be beautiful and colorful. And because we are taking this course with Anera and because we want to be painters, I think this is the best way to learn and gain experience.” -- Kenan, 17, vocational student, Ein El Hilweh camp
Ein El Hilweh is the largest refugee camp in Lebanon, with a population of 70,000 Palestinian and 50,000 Syrian refugees. Despite its size, until this year it had only one functioning hospital. A second hospital in the camp, formerly known as Al Aqsa Hospital, closed its doors six years ago, after sustaining severe damage during security incidents.
Thanks to an initiative by Palestinian doctors and support from the Qatari Green Crescent the shuttered hospital was recently reopened under the name Green Crescent Charity Medical Center, or Al-Hilal Al-Akhdar. The effort was launched with minimal resources and the hospital facilities still need much work, especially the general ward on the second floor, which had been severely damaged.
“I love this job, being a painter, it makes me see the world in colors. We are trying to make the hospital look beautiful for its patients. I am so happy that I am doing something with my life and that I am able to be helpful to my community. My family will be proud of what we did, and I will be proud of myself.” --Ibrahim, 17, vocational student, Ein El Hilweh camp
The commercial painting students are participants in Anera’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) program. The Anera vocational course at Anera’s local partner, the MAAN Center for Youth and Childhood, is part of a UNICEF program for vocational education which is funded by the Embassies of Netherlands and Germany in Beirut and UK AID.
