Fahima Atawneh has had enough of the reality in the Bedouin sector, where she says "normal routine and emergency situations are one and the same."
The grim statistics show that a Bedouin child's chances of getting hurt in an accident in the home are seven times greater than that of a Jewish child.
"We live in a constant state of alert and I felt that rather than wait for the next disaster to strike, I have to do something that would raise awareness to the importance of first aid," she said.
Atawneh heads the Bedouin sector's health program as part of her duties in the Arab-Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment and Cooperation and Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Development – a Beersheba-based nonprofit organization dedicated to social change and Arab-Jewish partnership, which is better known simply as AJEEC-NISPED.
"As a traditional and closed society, it was clear to me that the emphasis should be placed on our women, who live in the community and know the families, the homes and the access roads, which saves precious time," she explained.
Now the result of her efforts is taking shape in the form of a social breakthrough: a paramedics' course catering exclusively to Bedouin women.
The Bedouin sector, it seems, is plagued by a multitude of home accidents: Children are run over outside their homes and there are severe cases of fire- and fall-related deaths.
The nature of the Bedouin environment contributes to this epidemic and the issue goes beyond poor infrastructure. Much of the problem lies with the lack of awareness of health issues in the sector, which stem both from poor nutrition and the delayed diagnosis of diseases.
AJEEC-NISPED, founded in 2000, seeks to put an end to this. As part of the NGOs activities, which set out to bolster Jewish-Bedouin cooperation, it has struck a partnership with Magen David Adom emergency services. This partnership has produced several paramedics' training courses and so far, 50 Bedouin paramedics have graduated.
"The paramedics' presence on the ground has already made a difference in how emergency situations are handled," she said, "but there are no women in uniform."
Atawneh approached MDA's southern district office and her idea got the go-ahead.
"They said yes immediately. We started getting the word out and we were surprised by the response. We only had room for 25 women in the course," she said.
Training is still underway, but the all-female paramedics' course has already been hailed as a resounding success.
"We have a waiting list of dozens of women who want to join the next class. That's an achievement. For us, it also shatters the glass ceiling."
Atawneh, who despite wearing a headscarf defines herself as a secular Muslim, said participants in the course are between the ages of 19 and 40.
"Most of them come from unrecognized and remote villages scattered throughout the Negev, places the average Israeli has never heard of. There's no doubt that the growing number of paramedics is critical, as these villages are devoid of medical and emergency services. I think it's outrageous because it is imperative that citizens receive such services from the state. Lifesaving services are an essential goal, according to both the Torah and the Quran," she said.
The course includes women from all walks of life, from homemakers and university students to preschool and school teachers.
"They all attend the course for the same reason. They all want to ease the lack of medical knowledge. They want to see the sector as a whole and particularly their children receive adequate medical care.
"Some of them have experienced incidents that ended in death and unfortunately, we are witnessing more and more such cases that could have been prevented given the medical know-how. Lives could have been saved. This training is supposed to provide participants with the necessary tools to provide immediate and professional medical aid."
The all-female paramedics' training "is our flagship course," Atawneh continued. "These women come from a closed and traditional community and they are willing to take responsibility for their lives and the lives of others in their communities. They [the participants] are already a source of inspiration for many other women who face greater challenges. This is also an excellent opportunity to expose Israeli society to the change within the sector; the change women are choosing to undertake."
Women on a mission
Atawneh said she is aware of the fact that paramedics' training afforded to men is different from the one given to women.
"It's different. Different preparations and adjustments are made, down to the days and hours. Most women are working mothers and they are free only in the afternoon. And unlike the men, they cannot go to a class that ends late at night."
Q: Is there a distinct advantage to having female paramedics?
"Women have a different emotional range than men. A mother has her strength, and I'm talking about something beyond empowerment. Compassion, understanding and a soothing touch are in our DNA. Women are those who pay attention to the small details. They give more of themselves than the men, who themselves admit that."
Q: What was the reaction among Bedouin men?
"What reaches me is mainly the encouraging voices, which say that this is a step that strengthens the community. There is also a small part that opposes this change and I suppose they are bothered by the possibility that the women will leave the villages, earn their own money and become independent. Still, I believe that if they themselves need help, they will also turn to them [female paramedics] and they will have a different reaction to this novelty."
Q: Are female paramedics expected to pass the knowledge on to their communities over time?
"We are now sowing the seeds and I believe that we will find the appropriate framework for that to happen. With the response on the ground being what it is, things are already visibly different and in time, we'll see the results. I believe that little by little, female paramedics will become a fixture in the Bedouin landscape," Atawneh said.
One of the women currently training to become a paramedic is Jamila, a mother of three from the unrecognized Bedouin village of Abu Queider, southeast of Beersheba, which is home to 7,000 people.
"My 45-year-old mother has a heart condition and the concern for her life is constant. I live right next door, but because we're an unrecognized village, the paramedics can take over 20 minutes just to get to the village's main road. From there, it's about seven minutes to the house, if they can even find it, and that is critical time if someone's life is in danger," the 28-year-old kindergarten teacher said.
Her mother's heart condition was not the only reason Jamila sought to become a paramedic – the kindergarten children also played a part in her decision.
"We have had cases when children needed medical help, lifesaving help, and sometimes the results were tragic because we don't have local medical teams who can administer first aid immediately. Every village needs appropriate medical services nearby," she said.
Jamila recalled an incident that took place in April last year when two Bedouin children were killed by an explosion caused by old munitions they had found.
"I heard a huge boom at about 5 p.m. It was a tremendous explosion – the whole house shook. I opened my WhatsApp [messaging application] and I saw all kinds of messages about casualties and how there was nothing we could do. I went outside and saw one of the children. He had a pulse but he suffered a serious head injury. It was crazy. They were just lying there and the ambulance hadn't arrived.
"I remember the helplessness and I told myself that this situation – that a child was dying in front of me and I couldn't do anything to save his life – should never happen again. Today, after I joined the paramedics' course, I have no doubt that it could have ended differently and this thought bothers me every day. With the training, I've received so far that incident could have ended differently."
Jamila is determined to eradicate, or at the very least minimize, the harm suffered by her surroundings.
"It's important for everyone to have the basic knowledge to save lives and it's important that every mother gets this training. That way, when she is watching her child or her neighbor's child she can make a difference. That alone can change the statistics."
Conservatism at the expense of health
Dr. Jaber Abu Abed heads the emergency medical services in Rahat, the only Bedouin community in Israel to have city status. But Rahat is not immune to statistics and seven children have died there as a result of accidents in the home since 2016.
Abu Abed welcomed AJEEC-NISPED's initiative, saying, "We come from a conservative sector, where there are many home accidents. For example, does the Israeli public know how many [Bedouin] children suffer from burns from boiling oil during cooking? This conservatism comes at the expense of health because there are many women in the sector who refuse to receive medical treatment from a man."
Recalling what he said was one of the most tragic cases he has seen in his career, he spoke of an incident that took place on Jan. 2, 2016, in which three siblings died in a home fire, sparked by burning coals left near their beds to provide heat.
"The mother had gone shopping and locked the door behind her. They died of asphyxiation. They were brought to our small medical center and at that moment I was a helpless doctor in front of three small children. You know that they are no longer alive and in the meantime, dozens, if not hundreds of people are blocking the way for MDA and other medical teams.
"The sad thing is that we see these accidents in homes that have already been struck by tragedy. Children continue to get hurt and families continue to pay the ultimate price," he said. "The reality today is that there is a significant gap between the chances of an Arab child from the south getting hurt and the chances of an Arab child from anywhere else in the country getting hurt. An Arab child from the south has four times the chance of getting hurt," he said.
Q: Do you think the new initiative of the female Bedouin paramedics in the south can change this grim situation?
"It can certainly help," he said. "It opens a window for mothers to take this knowledge with them to their homes, schools and kindergartens, so that if something happens, the mothers will be the first to respond in or outside the home and prevent a catastrophe."
Yusuf Abu Jafar, who lost his daughters Eden (4) and Huda (3) and his infant son Tawfiq on that fateful night, also welcomed the initiative.
"We were told they were critically wounded and we prayed until the very last minute. I don't wish this nightmare on any parent. I held my children in my arms, tried to save them, stroked their ash-stained faces and wept. Nothing helped. But maybe now, with the [female] paramedics, there is a chance that similar situations will end with saving other children, preventing another family from suffering such a disaster."
