Israel Active

The Retinoblastoma Silk Road Project treats young Afghan children with the potentially deadly eye cancer Retinoblastoma. Ophthalmologists from Israel’s Sheba Medical Center check images on Zoom and WhatsApp and refer children for treatment in Lahore, Pakistan.  

A tiny month-old porcupine was recently rescued from crows by guards at Israel’s Knesset (parliament). Her wounds were treated at the nearby Nili and David Jerusalem Bird Research Station of the Society for the Protection of Nature, and at the Biblical Zoo. She has now been released back into the wild.

Israeli NGO Innovation: Africa (see previously) is installing clean water systems in 35 remote villages in Northern Cameroon. And in Kenya, IsraAID is installing similar solar-powered pumps to extract water from the boreholes they drill.  (Another great video)

Two very positive articles, to mark the 3rd anniversary of the signing of the original Abraham Accords by Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, and the USA.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed interest in joining the Eastern Mediterranean alliance between Israel, Cyprus, and Greece and to establish a cargo route from India to the Med. All three leaders approved and will invite the Indian Premier to the next summit.

Florida University has been running its “Innovation Nation: The Global Influence of Israeli Technology and Entrepreneurship” course for three years. This year it was oversubscribed. Students learn how to pitch, to think through different angles, teamwork, and “failure”. (Great explanatory video)

Tzafon Medical Center near Tiberias cares for 300,000 residents of Northern Israel. Staff and patients represent a mosaic of Israelis: Christian and Muslim Arabs, Bedouin, Druze, Circassians, and all kinds of Jews. It has just begun implanting LVAD heart devices.

Sgt. Maj. Avishag Shiran Malka is Israel’s only haredi female Border Police officer. She consults her Rabbi who supports her work, which involves Shabbat and even Yom Kippur duties. 17 years in the force, Malka serves in a mostly female unit that regularly patrols Afula in case of terrorist attack.

Casablanca was the venue of a very successful first Israel-Morocco cohort of the career-advancement program by Israel’s Femforward (see previously). Jerusalem’s deputy mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum was one of the facilitators.  Bahrain is next.

Israel’s MobileODT (see previously) has partnered US-based Cingulate Medical to launch phase one of a National Cervical Cancer and Breast Cancer screening and treatment program in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – the largest such program in Africa.