Project Rozana is a non-profit based in Australia that aims to connect Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank with appropriate medical training and healthcare, and, by extension, build connections between Palestinian and Israeli citizens. It was founded in 2013 by Hadassah Australia and their president, Ron Finkel. It is a member of the

Alliance for Middle East Peace The Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP) is a group of over 100 leading non-governmental organizations working to foster reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians, and between Arabs and Jews in Israel and the wider region. One of ALLM ...

History

In 2012, a four-year-old Palestinian girl named Rozana Salawhi fell nine stories out of the window of her family's apartment near Ramallah. Her mother insisted on taking Rozana to Hadassah Medical Center, as she knew they would be more equipped to treat her daughter than the local hospital. This decision was credited with saving Rozana's life. Ron Finkel, after hearing the story, was inspired to create an organization which could promote goodwill between Palestinian and Israeli communities by providing healthcare training to underserved hospitals. Project Rozana was officially founded in 2013. As of 2018, the non-profit had already provided funding to support Arabic-speaking paramedics and medical interpreters at

Hadassah Hospital Hadassah Medical Center () is an Israeli medical organization established in 1934 that operates two university hospitals in Jerusalem (one in Ein Karem and one in Mount Scopus) as well as schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, and pharmacology ...

and

Tel HaShomer Hospital Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer (), also known as Tel HaShomer Hospital, is the largest hospital in Israel, located in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan in the Tel HaShomer neighborhood, Israel. In 2025, ''Newsweek'' ranked it as ...

. In collaboration with

World Vision Australia World Vision Australia (WVA) is an ecumenical Christian non-governmental organisation based in Melbourne, Australia. It is a part of the ''World Vision International Partnership'' led by World Vision International. WVA is Australia's largest ov ...

, Project Rozana funded the Binational School of Psychotherapy at Hadassah Hospital, which trains Palestinian healthcare workers in treating children suffering from PTSD. They have also provided financial support to Ziv Medical Center in

Safed Safed (), also known as Tzfat (), is a city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of up to , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and in Israel. Safed has been identified with (), a fortif ...

, and their work in treating patients injured in the Syrian civil war. In 2019, the non-profit launched the Aiia Maasarwe Memorial Medical Fellowship Program (AMMMFP) in honor of Aiia Maasarwe, an Arab-Israeli student murdered in

Melbourne, Australia Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung/ or ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second most-populous city in Australia, after Sydney. The city's name generally refers to a metropolitan area also known ...

. The fellowship allows Palestinian recipients to work in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

hospitals to develop their healthcare knowledge and skills. The fellowship was interrupted due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, but was restarted in early 2023. In May 2020, following the outbreak of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

, Project Rozana delivered hospital-grade

ventilators A ventilator is a type of breathing apparatus, a class of medical technology that provides mechanical ventilation by moving breathable air into and out of the lungs, to deliver breaths to a patient who is physically unable to breathe, or breathi ...

and other needed medical equipment to the Palestinian Authority. They also provided on-site training at

Rambam Hospital Rambam Health Care Campus () commonly called Rambam Hospital, is a teaching hospital in the Bat Galim neighborhood of Haifa, Israel. Rambam Health Care Campus is a part of Tertiary Referral Center for Northern Israel, It was founded in 1938. It ...

for Palestinian ICU workers. In mid-2022, Project Rozana collaborated with the

Sheba Medical Center Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer (), also known as Tel HaShomer Hospital, is the largest hospital in Israel, located in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan in the Tel HaShomer neighborhood, Israel. In 2025, ''Newsweek'' ranked it as ...

Tel Hashomer Tel HaShomer (, ''lit.'' Hill of the Guardsman) or Kiryat Krinitzi is a neighborhood in Ramat Gan, Israel. It borders Kiryat Ono in the north, Yehud in the east, and Or Yehuda in the south. A major Israel Defense Forces base and the Sheba Medical ...

to set up a remote OB-GYN unit in

Hebron Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...

, to provide Palestinian health workers with training in OB-GYN telemedicine. In September 2022, Project Rozana received US$2.3 million from

USAID The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an agency of the United States government that has been responsible for administering civilian United States foreign aid, foreign aid and development assistance. Established in 19 ...

to fund a “systematic approach to cross-border cooperation as a form of health diplomacy and a way to improve health delivery”.{{Cite web , last=Magid , first=Jacob , date=September 28, 2022 , title=USAID awards $8 million in grants to strengthen Israeli-Palestinian cooperation , url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/usaid-awards-8-million-in-grants-to-strengthen-israeli-palestinian-cooperation/ , access-date=2023-10-14 , website=www.timesofisrael.com , language=en-US

Goals

The non-profit focuses on three specific short-term goals: providing transportation for patients, covering the cost of medical procedures not covered by the Palestinian Authority, and training healthcare workers. They also have a long-term goal of addressing

Type 2 diabetes Type 2 diabetes (T2D), formerly known as adult-onset diabetes, is a form of diabetes mellitus that is characterized by high blood sugar, insulin resistance, and relative lack of insulin. Common symptoms include increased thirst, frequent ...

macular degeneration Macular degeneration, also known as age-related macular degeneration (AMD or ARMD), is a medical condition which may result in blurred vision, blurred or vision loss, no vision in the center of the visual field. Early on there are often no sym ...

, and

kidney failure Kidney failure, also known as renal failure or end-stage renal disease (ESRD), is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney fa ...

, three common problems in Arab communities. Areas of focus for trainings provided by the non-profit include dialysis,

palliative care Palliative care (from Latin root "to cloak") is an interdisciplinary medical care-giving approach aimed at optimizing quality of life and mitigating or reducing suffering among people with serious, complex, and often terminal illnesses. Man ...

for children with terminal illnesses, and pediatric emergency medicine. Project Rozana's ultimate goal is to build the infrastructure needed to allow Palestinian healthcare systems to be self reliant.

References

External links

Official website
2013 establishments in Australia Charities based in Australia Health charities