The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), officially founded in December 1968, is a national humanitarian organization. Since its establishment, it caters to the health and welfare of the Palestinian people and others in need in the OPT and the Diaspora. It has 4,200 employees in oPt (West Bank and Gaza Strip), Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Iraq in addition to its volunteer network of more than 20,000 people. The PRCS has become one of the main non-profit providers of medical and social welfare services in the oPt. Despite the many obstacles and difficulties, the PRCS persists in providing humanitarian services and support to its people, through its branches in Palestine, as well as in Arab countries where Palestinians reside in large numbers. The PRCS is a full member of the International Movement of the Red Cross and Red Crescent.
PRCS strives to ease human suffering through its Emergency Medical Services (EMS), preventive and curative health care services, rehabilitation, volunteer activities, and programs promoting social and cultural development, with a focus on the most vulnerable members of the society. PRCS also focuses on the dissemination of the humanitarian values, the fundamental principles of the International Movement of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, in addition to International Humanitarian Law.
The Palestine Red Crescent is one of the largest and most reliable provider of health care and social services in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It is also the only provider of secondary health care services to the Palestinian refugees in the Diaspora ( Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Iraq). Due to the financial crisis in oPt and serious lack of job opportunities for Palestinians in Lebanon, there are very few options for the Palestine Red Crescent to generate income from its programs and services. This leaves it vulnerable and dependent on external funding. With years of deteriorating economic and humanitarian conditions, and with periods where the authorities could not provide health care and social services, the importance of the Palestine Red Crescent has increased.
Services and Activities
Emergency Medical Services
EMS Teams operating through 14 main stations and 28 sub stations in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, in addition to the EMS center located at the PRCS branch in Syria. These centers are currently assisted by a fleet of 140 ambulances.
EM Institute, which is one of the educational institutions affiliated to PRCS. It was established in 1996 with the mission of preparing qualified individuals in the field of pre-hospitalization EMS services. It is unique in the occupied Palestinian territory, and is specialized in providing EMS training through its branches in Al Bireh and Gaza. The Institute is open to all social categories and local institutions, through training sessions and workshops aimed at spreading awareness and social guidance in the field of first aid and emergency medical care.
PRCS has acceded to the membership of International Trauma Life Support, USA, and has thus been accredited as a licensed and qualified ITLS center.
International Humanitarian Law
The unit organizes workshops and training courses on a regular basis, targeting PRCS staff,volunteers and civil society organizations, whether governmental or not, to introduce PRCS’s mission and goals, the basic principles of the International Movement (Humanity, Impartiality, Neutrality,Voluntary Service, Unity,Universality), IHL, Movement components (IFRC, ICRC and national societies) and their relations with PRCS.
The unit organizes ad hoc workshops targeting staff of governmental institutions, especially the officers and staff of security police and military apparatuses, introducing them to IHL. It holds seminars focusing on the emblem in order to avoid its misuse, and to secure the respect and protection of medical missions.
The unit documents violations of IHL by occupation authorities against PRCS teams and facilities. The unit develops capacities by training PRCS staff and volunteers as well as program coordinators, especially young ones, in the dissemination and circulation of information on PRCS and International Movement principles and services, as well as IHL, by organizing specialized training sessions in the fields of communication, public relations and information, in order to improve their competences and upgrade their community-based performance.
Disaster Management
Capacity Building
Training exercises/drills
Risk Reduction
School-based risk reduction
Raising social awareness
Emergency response program
Primary Health Care
Community-Based Development and Empowerment
Reproductive health
Control and treatment of chronic disease (diabetes and high-blood pressure)
Home visits
Emergency preparedness and response
School Health
Secondary Health Care
PRCS runs a total of 15 hospitals in Palestine and the Diaspora: 4 in the West Bank (Jerusalem, Hebron, Al Bireh and Tulkarem), 2 in the Gaza Strip (Al Amal in Khan Younis and Al Quds in Gaza), 3 in Syria(Palestine in Al Yarmouk refugee camp, Yaffa in Damascus Bissan in the north of Syria), 5 in Lebanon (Al Hamshari in Ein Hilweh refugee camp (Saida), Haifa in Burj Al Barajnah refugee camp (Beirut), Safad in Al Badawi refugee camp (Tripoli), Balsam in Al Rishidiyah refugee camp (Tyr), Nazareth in Al Bekka, and Palestine hospital in Egypt). These hospitals house departments for pediatrics, gynecology, obstetrics, general surgery, internal surgery, dermatology, nephrology, and cancer, in addition to Intensive Care Units (ICU).
Rehabilitation and Ability Services
PRCS provides its rehabilitation services through eight centers specializing in the rehabilitation and capacity development of mentally disabled children, four centers and schools specializing in the education of the hearing-impaired, two sections specializing in the rehabilitation of children suffering from cerebral palsy, ten centers and units specializing in physical/motor disabilities, five units for speech and hearing rehabilitation, a program for the at-home rehabilitation and support of children with severe mental disabilities, and six mobile rehabilitation teams operating in villages.
Psycho-Social Support
The program operates psychosocial centers in Jerusalem, Hebron, Jaba’a, Qalqilia, Gaza city and Khan Younis.
Psycho-Social services include:
Psychosocial support to caregivers (Love Bridge): providing caregivers with skills required to cope with their children and to protect them from violence, physical ill-treatment and sexual abuse.
School-Based Psychosocial Support: targeting children in the 5th and 6th elementary grades with a view to improving their psychosocial wellbeing and enhancing their interaction with the local community through acquiring related coping skills.
Community-Based Activities, such as open days, festivals, theatre shows, workshops and trips: enabling children and their caregivers to interact, as well as increasing caregivers’ awareness of their children’s psychosocial needs.
Individual and group psychological counseling: helping individuals, developing their skills and providing them with essential tools to help them to achieve sense of adaptation with the self and the community.
Training courses: enhancing the efficiency and capacities of staff and professionals in the psychosocial field.
Supervision: improving the quality of services through enhancing psychosocial workers’ self-awareness so they can provide services based on sound scientific, theoretical and practical basis.
Youth & Volunteers
This Program is implemented as part of PRCS programs and services provided in ordinary times and during emergencies through a network of volunteers supporting the different PRCS programs. For example, more than 350 specialized volunteers have helped the Psychosocial support program , while more than 850 volunteers have helped the Disaster Management Unit implement its activities, training courses, community-based health programs and drills in cooperation with relevant institutions. Volunteers also take part in activities organized by the Primary Health Care Program and more than 700 volunteers who have passed multiple Emergency Medical courses provide support to the Emergency Medical Services interventions, according to need. The Emergency Medical volunteers are present in national events, marches, festivals, football and basketball matches to provide medical and first aid services if needed.
Volunteers participate in organizing various activities in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in partnership with may national organizations on national and international occasions such as the World Volunteer Day, the Palestinian Child Day, and the olive harvest season. Moreover, in excess of 1100 female volunteers work within 75 Safe Motherhood Committees throughout Palestinian villages and communities to enhance women’s role in rural areas and promote voluntary service. They also organize several health community-based activities. This Program receives endless support and recognition from both PRCS and the local community.
Organizational Development
The Organizational Development (OD) Program is a self-initiated Program started by PRCS in 2003 in responding to its expansion and growing services and with a view to covering the humanitarian needs arising from the 2nd Intifada (2000). As PRCS witnessed rapid growth, an increase in human and material resources resulted to more complex and intertwined organizational relations, it became important to enhance its capacities and organizational capabilities to enable it to cover needs on the one hand, and to boost its steadfastness on the other.
In line with this vision, key development lines of action were set, prioritized and acknowledged. The OD Unit, in cooperation with other Departments, sought to set priorities within four core areas: The Financial and Administrative System; Human Resource; Governance and Branches; and Planning and Projects.
