JVP Health and Human Rights Project (JAMP)

Jewish Voice for Peace Health and Human Rights Project
(formerly known as JAMP)

For more information, email us at boston-at-jewishvoiceforpeace.org

or go to the Boston chapter website

JVP Health and Human Rights Project (formerly known as JAMP, the Jewish American Medical Project) was initiated by the Health and Human Rights Committee of Boston's Visions of Peace with Justice in Israel/Palestine. In late 2005, VOPJ voted to become the Boston chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).The name of JAMP was changed to reflect the new alliance with JVP, and the fact that project members now include human rights as well as medical workers.

What is JVP HAHRP? JVP HAHRP sends specialized delegations to Palestine consisting of medical and human rights workers, journalists, labor organizers and others. JVP HAHRP participants work closely with Palestinian health and human rights organizations to provide care, material aid, and exchange information. Participants return from trips committed to making presentations and/or sharing their experiences, and become part of a vital network of alumni who share stories, support and information, largely through the JVP HAHRP email list. Most people who participate in the program are Jewish, but it is not a requirement.

In addition to sponsoring delegations, members of JVP HAHRP raise funds for material aid, host speakers and visiting Palestinian delegations, and work to secure support from US professional organizations for health and human rights within the Occupied Territories.

Harvard Medical School / Harvard School of Dental Medicine,
Dean's Community Service Awards, certificate of appreciation,
for outstanding service to the community, November 4, 2004.
Awarded to Jewish American Medical Project

Delegations to Israel/Palestine

Special presentations of articles, photos and videos

REPORT BACK:

NOVEMBER 2006 - click here to read team blog.

MARCH 2005 - click here to read the report
"Israel - Palestine, the Human Cost of Occupation" radio report by Seema Jilani,
Seema is a medical student at Bayor College of Medicine in Houston, and also a reporter for Pacifica radio station KPFT there. She travelled to the Occupied Territories in 2005 with the Jewish American Medical Project. click here!You should see a little media player embedded in the page, a few paragraphs down - click the play button and the audio should start within a few seconds.

JANUARY 2004 - click here to read the report

JUNE 2003 - click here to read the report

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Our Partners
JVP Health and Human Rights Project works collaboratively with colleagues and friends working for health and human rights in Israel/Palestine. Our major partners in this effort are:
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel)
Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees (UPMRC)

Our Partners in the News:
"Doctors' Healing Touch Reaches Across Mideast Divide" (pdf file)
New York Times - July 26, 2004

"Health Under Fire" (pdf file)
Lancet - Sept. 19, 2004

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Our Objectives
1.)	To provide medical aid to Palestinians living under Occupation, including material and technical aid, educational exchange, and clinical care, provided by JAMP volunteers and fundraising efforts, in the areas of clinical medicine, nursing, and allied disciplines, as well as mental health and public health.
2.)	To document the impact of militarization on both Israeli and Palestinian populations. This includes investigating conditions of health and human rights in the Occupied Territories, as well as the experiences of Israeli clinical, social service, and human rights workers within Israel.
3.)	To educate the general public and its political representatives about the effects of Occupation on the health and welfare of the populations living under it, by presenting the material we gather to the widest possible audience, and by other means, such as bringing the testimony of our colleagues from the region to the U.S. public and press. We aim to use our identification as health care workers and Jewish Americans to broaden the discourse and level of tolerance within the U.S., by humanizing the victims on all sides of the conflict and advancing understanding of the costs of Occupation to both societies.
4.)	To support and promote the work of our partner organizations, PHR-Israel and UPMRC.
5.)	To advance the work of the Jewish peace movement through this collaborative project shared by many different organizations, both in the U.S., in Israel and Palestine, and elsewhere.

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Other JVP Health and Human Rights Project Activities

In addition to sending medical delegations to the region, there are other ways to pursue our objectives. These might include the following:
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	organizing and hosting visiting delegations of health care workers from Israel/Palestine
	raising funds for material aid
	giving educational presentations to both health care and general audiences
	working within professional organizations to enlist their support for health rights within the Occupied Territories

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How Can You Help?

JVP Health and Human Rights Project needs and welcomes volunteers. In addition to people working in health care and related fields, we need help with the many non-medical tasks ahead of us, including organizing (outreach, putting on events, logistics, etc), press work, and fundraising. There is also non-medical work to be done on the delegations.

For more information, email us at info@vopj.org

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Fundraising

JVP Health and Human Rights Project seeks funds for the delegation to cover the expense of medical material donations to the Palestinian community and to defray expenses incurred by PHR-Israel and the UPMRC in assisting us in this project. Delegation members will fund their own travel expenses from the U.S. to Israel, although we also seek scholarship funds to cover the travel expenses of low-income delegation members.

Please make tax-deductible contributions payable to "Grassroots International", write "JVP Health and Human Rights Project" on the memo line, and mail to: Visions of Peace with Justice in Israel/Palestine, P.O. Box 400479, Cambridge, MA 02140, phone 617-984-0532.