Peace by Peace International Video Conference at The Yale School of Medicine - March 3, 2011

On March 3, 2011, Peace by Peace, in coordination with the University of Toronto and Health as a Bridge to Peace, held an international video conference in order to lead a discussion on capacity building endeavors between Israelis and Palestinians and the roles we can take on this side of the world to improve the health of both societies. Speakers included Dr. James Leckman of the ERICE initiative, outlining his organization's plan to improve mental health capacity in Palestine and Israel, in addition to providing support for school-based initiatives in Palestine which hope to serve the 84% of Palestinian children who have been witness to traumatic events in their lives. The program aims to strengthen the individual and provide alternatives to violent means of retribution. Dr. Arnold Noyek also spoke of his CISEPO initiative and the thousands of Jordanian, Palestinian and Israeli children his organization screened for congenital deafness. In addition to the screenings, CISEPO is heavily involved in helping these children integrate better among their peers by providing hearing devices to the families at little or no cost. The event also featured interviews by Andrew Kobets of Israeli and Palestinian physicians, outlining the capacity needs of the populations, the shortcoming and successes of past cooperative efforts, and in-depth analyses of the psychological connotations of such unifying work by these brave Israeli and Palestinian health professionals. View an article written about the conference in the Jewish Tribune here: http://www.jewishtribune.ca/TribuneV2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4261&Itemid=53