Health Work Committees’ School Health Program in East Jerusalem

Heath Work committees’ School health program was established in 1990 providing vaccination, checkup, and screening, first aid and curative services, and raising health awareness between students, teachers and parents. to schools in Jerusalem. It started in four schools providing medical checkups, health education and promotion activities, and first aid services through schools' clinics. Today, the program covers 75 schools in East Jerusalem, with complete supervision in 16 schools that have a health clinic established and a nurse present twice a week, and partial supervision in 29 schools that have a nurse visit once monthly. The program, in cooperation with the Palestinian Ministry of health, implement the National vaccination campaign that cover 60 schools, The Ministry of Health provides HWC with the needed vaccines and a vaccination team from HWC complete the task. The program aims to enhance the Palestinian presence in Jerusalem through community mobilization and empowerment, improvement of health care services offered to school children, promote health awareness and education in support of creating a better school environment, and establish strong network for and coordination with society institution (ministry of health and higher education and NGOs)

School health program provides the following services:

1. Vaccination according to the National Vaccination Program.
2. Assessment and primary medical exams for 1st grade students.
3. Dental and vision exams for 1st, 4th, 7th, and 10th graders in addition to dental fissure sealing.
4. Vision exam for 1st, 5th, and 8th grade students.
5. Health awareness program: includes courses, classes and training program to raise awareness regarding healthy behavior and environmental health issues for students, teachers and parents, in addition to individuals from the local society.

The school program has 12 members including program director, 2 general practitioners, one dentist, and 8 nurses. In addition to a vaccination team of 3 nurses .HWC is committed to develop and build on personnel skills through capacity building and training.