Sep, 2014
For two years, 65-year-old Ata Zidat has been a regular visitor to a charitable clinic in his town of Bani Na'im, in the southern West Bank. Zidat is a father of 11 now grown up children and the grandfather of 22 kids. He suffers from chronic ulcers.
Now Zidat receives his ulcer medication for free at the town clinic, thanks to Anera’s in-kind delivery of AmeriCares’ recent donation. Like many people in his village, he is unemployed and lives in poverty. “Before coming here to consult with the doctor, I used to buy the medication from a private drug store and it cost me $6.50, which is a heavy burden for a chronic ulcer patient like me,” he explained.
“If you go into our pharmacy, you will see that one-third of our medications are donated through Anera,” says Dr. Issa Qdeimat. “This recent AmeriCares donation will cover us for the rest of the year, soothing the pain of so many needy patients suffering from ulcers.”
Over the past two years, Zidat has shown great improvement in his health, and now only needs his medication when his stomach and large intestines are irritated. Zidat also admits he has been a smoker since his teenage years and says his biggest failing is his inability to stop. Dr. Issa says smoking, coupled with poor nutrition, can cause major health problems such as ulcers.
His former job as a truck driver between Amman and Baghdad and bad eating habits on the road did not help either, the doctor adds. “Aside from being a heavy smoker, he also relied on coffee, sandwiches and canned foods to stay alert at the wheel.”
Poor patients like Zidat rely entirely on the generosity of the free clinic for their health care. “So when Anera supplies us with such important medicines, it greatly eases our financial burdens,” Dr. Issa explains. “The donations help us function more efficiently and ensure that each patient in our clinic gets the medical attention and treatment they need at a minimal cost or no cost at all.”
