The aims of the charity are as follows:

• To advance the education of Palestinian children.
  
• To relieve poverty distress and hardship among the Palestinian people and to promote the welfare of Palestinian children.
  
• To preserve and protect the health of Palestinian children and their families through the provision of financial assistance, support, education and practical advice.

It goes without saying that the Dove and Dolphin should do its best to help raise the level of medical education and thus of medical care in Palestine. The Dove and Dolphin International Medical Centre was chosen as the nucleus for this and opened in March 2007 when David and six fellow doctors joined with their Palestinian sisters and brothers in a happy ceremony around a celebration cake.

It was to be open to all doctors, nurses, other professionals, water engineers and others working for public hygiene etc – anyone who wishes to enhance the health of the people. It had been under discussion for two years. The main objects are to help raise standards of medical care in Gaza and to raise morale. Dr Khamis Elessi and David agreed this statement:

"It is recognised that the brutal occupation has limited the teaching of medicine and its allied subjects in Palestine. Its people deserve the best standards of practice within a universal health service. The Dove and Dolphin International Medical Centre has been conceived to help in these aims by inviting doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and all who enhance health, to come together so that they mutually increase their knowledge, skills and morale. Thus all who participate will be committing themselves to the highest ideals of their professions and so serve all the people to the best of their abilities."

The same ethos lies behind this web site.

It is intended that more doctors and other professionals working in the field of health will come from other countries to give of their knowledge and expertise. A pattern already exists for that – from Scandinavia and France for instance. However, sometimes an outside physician or surgeon would visit a hospital in the north say, and doctors in the same specialty elsewhere in Gaza would not know of the visit. This web site exists partly to avoid such a waste of skill and knowledge.

This web site is a tool to be used by every one who has any responsibility in the field of health within Palestine. It is also a tool with which the Dove and Dolphin International Medical Centre will be promoted. The detailed aims of this centre are:

• Outside doctors are to come as sisters and brothers to stand with their Palestinian colleagues.They come in humility and in the knowledge that there is a wide divergence of medical skills and practice in Palestine. This reflects the long continued and barbarous occupation which has caused varying degrees of chaos, large numbers of terrible injuries to deal with at times, barriers to travel for education/exams, insufficient rewards, and an environment which is not conducive to quiet thought and study - to name a few factors.
  
• The centre is to be first and foremost a friendly gathering place where doctors (and others at other times - see below) could feel at home.
  
• The more formal activities will consist of case conferences, presentation of chosen topics, panel discussions etc. These functions focus first and foremost on the most common medical problems facing the majority of the population ie the impoverished. Public health is central eg water quality, nutritional deficiency, inherited 'disease' .
  
• A good video projection and sound system is available from El Wafa. Quiet small rooms where doctors can use the internet are planned; distance learning is to be a formal part of that. A medical library is to be started, and steadily built up. The need for a good microscope and full range of teaching slides plus teaching DVD's will be met; pathology, especially morbid pathology, appears to have been given a back seat in Palestine- as in the UK.
  
• All qualified doctors are to be made welcome and especially those at the coalface ie the family and child practitioners.
  
• This centre should be made available, by careful agreement, to other health workers – nurses, midwives, physiotherapists etc.- to anyone who can contribute to the enhancement of medical care in Gaza. There will be many occasions where our colleagues with those other skills would join with the doctors/surgeons/obstetricians in joint discussion of a common problem.

Whenever teaching is taking place, and especially when doctors and others are coming from outside, that meeting should be advertised as soon as possible on the site. The site will also serve as an archive so that lecture notes etc can be left on it for the benefit of students and colleagues who wish to refer to a particular presentation. ( This centre has not been used since its opening. It lies on the eastern border. The cost and scarcity of petrol has been a central factor in this lack of use, as well as the continued instability.)

Our rules for this web site
The running of this web site will be supervised by Dr Khamis Elessi MD in Gaza with the assistance of Mr Nihad Taha who represents the Dove and Dolphin Charity in Gaza. Nihad will be responsible for collecting details of future meetings and posting them on this site. This will be done on the internet but he will also encourage contributions by phone 00970 599 322596, in writing by postal address within Gaza (no post coming in), and by e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . David Halpin FRCS Chairman of the Dove and Dolphin Charity will also be able to post on the web site and he will be the judge if there is any disagreement.

Links: Dove and Dolphin and The Wall