I am happy to report that my youngest daughter has a sore arm. Today, she took her last vaccination, bringing her up to date. Here’s how it came to pass….
Yesterday the school gave me two sheets of paper proving that my daughter was vaccinated twice in the first grade, not once. One time, the Health Committees in the Palestinian Authority came, and the second time, the Israeli Ministry of Health came. No one came when my daughter was in the second grade. (The school was right.)
The paper told me what my daughter was vaccinated against, not what vaccinations she took, so I had to have them translated into English and then cross check them against the vaccinations booklet. Surprise, surprise. EVERYTHING was written down! Even the ones given by the Health Committees of the Palestinian Authority (who the Israeli Ministry of Health said never write things down). They did write down the date and the vaccine. (The Health Committees were right.)
At that point, I realized that it was all a big mistake. My daughter was up to date. I was an idiot.
I called H from the Israeli Ministry of Health to put closure on the matter and she said, “It’s up to you as the mother to decide what vaccinations your daughter gets. I cannot force you.” I was confused again. I explained that in fact she had gotten the second grade shots in the first grade, so isn’t she in compliance? No, it turned out: “The Palestinian Authority uses a different combination of vaccines. The combination your daughter took does not include Pertussis or Whooping Cough. That what she’s missing.” “Is it important?” I asked, my heart sinking again. “Well, because the kids vaccinated by the Health Committees didn’t take it, we now have an outbreak of Whooping Cough.” (The Ministry of Health was right.)
That was enough for me. I woke my sleeping angel and we drove like the wind to Abu Tur. If you read my last post, you’ll know that the Israeli Ministry of Health vaccinated the girls in Samhar school today. It was my last chance this year to get the vaccine.
Abu Tur is a mixed Jewish-Arab neighborhood in West Jerusalem. I shouldn’t say “mixed,” I should say, “divided.” I followed the signs and found myself on the Jewish side. I asked several people where the Samhar School for Girls was, but no one knew. Then I asked them to point me to the Arab side of the neighborhood. They pointed down the hill.
I asked a ton of people but no one knew where that school was, but they kindly directly me to the girls school. Once there, I found out it was not Samhar, and one of the teachers said, “That’s in Tur.” “Isn’t this Tur?” I asked. “No, this is Abu Tur!” “Tur is on the other side of the Mount of Olives.
It was 9:55 am and the nurse was only to wait for me until 10 am. I was far, far, far beyond the palce where I was supposed to be. H didn’t answer her mobile phone. I felt angry at myself and guilty for dragging my daughter through the heat, without breakfast, without knowing where I was going.
I flew up the hill, past Jaffa Gate, past Damascus Gate, down into the valley next to the Russian church, up to the Mount of Olives, and down the other side. It still took ten minutes of going to the wrong place before I found the right place. “The nurse from the Ministry of Health is upstairs,” I was told. “The nurse from the Ministry of Health just left,” they told me at the top of the stairs. “But…but…but…”
Then I found the nurse, M, waiting for me in a little kitchen upstairs. She double-checked the vaccination booklet, prepared a combination vaccine that included Pertussis, and shot my daughter in the left arm. My angel didn’t make a sound.
My daughter, I think, is the only now third grader from her entire school (and perhaps from all the private schools in East Jerusalem) who is vaccinated for Whooping Cough. I can’t be sure of this, as I am not sure of anything.
If you ask, I might share what this all means to me, a resident of East Jerusalem, a place that is part of the West Bank according to international law, that was illegally annexed by Israel, and which receives some benefits (like health coverage) but lots and lots of discrimination from Israel. I can’t write about it now because I’m simply too tired.
Not to detract at all from your frustrating experience… Outbreaks of Whopping cough have re-emerged in the U.S. lately, with some young children dying. Usually babies who are too young to be vaccinated are protected by those older than them that have been
vaccinated. Unfortunately, the attitude of enough parents these days is that they don’t want to vaccinate their children. How ironic that you had a hard time getting a vaccine you wanted, and many people here in the US reject the vaccine that is available. The California legislature recently passed a law that school age children in certain grades must be vaccinated. However there is always some out for parents of
kids who refuse for ethical reasons– which is how we got into this problem to begin with. Anyway, there are a lot of clinics locally in California that have the vaccine available since it has been such a problem.
Seems that vaccinations are an issue all over the world!
Hello Nora and everybody in this group,
I am new to this group. I was born in Jerusalem and my family still live in Azareyah (east of Jerusalem). I have been living here in the U.S. for the last 13 years. I live in Salt Lake City Utah. I did have very frustrating experience with vaccination for my little one who is 6-years now. Last year she needed her KG shots. The school district along with the health department required her to get two shots that she already did take, but they insisted she has to take them; otherwise she cannot go to school. I had them recorded on her vaccination card with dates and signatures from both the doctor and the nurse who administered them, but it was not enough proof. Apparently the doctor forgot to input them in the computer system. I asked a friend of mine who is a doctor and he advised me not to give it to her again. I had to make many visits between the school, district, and health department to resolve this with no luck. Finally, a nurse came to me and told said:”Do you want your daughter to attend school?”, I said:”Yes!!”. She said you can sign a waiver saying that you do not want your child to be vaccinated for religious reasons. But, I was thinking, what about her other vaccines that she will need in the coming and far future??? I did not know what to do and school started and my little one did not start school till I solve this matter. I ended up signing the waiver after talking to many doctors and understanding that I can withdraw this waiver in the future and hopefully they will not ask me to give her these two shots again. I was even told that it might be in her way in the future if she decides to study medicine or any related medical studies….
All I wanted is for my baby to get to KG, and she might be deprived from her right to pursue a career in the medical field…I guess we will wait and see….
Good luck to you in Beit Hannina and to all in Palestine. We are planning to go back and join our families very soon. Wish us luck!!
Thanks for hanging out on my blog and for sharing your experiences. Very upsetting! I wonder if you can still get the doctor to add them to the computer? I really hope it gets worked out so there are no negative consequences of doing what you have to do — being a conscientious mother. Hopefully, these stories are infrequent, and hopefully they’ll become even less so. It does seem that human beings sometimes like to complicate matters. Not sure why.
Dearest Nora, I would have cried…
But to make you laugh, I will tell you two of our little stories about coming to the States…. not divided, not in war, one would say civilized..
Yesterday we went to the Insurance company to get health insurance for us three.
We learned that Vincent has to have a Social Security number to get an insurance, even though he is not already 18. So we went to the Social Security Administration and after waiting a long time, we were called. Just to find out, that they can’t give Vincent a SS number, because he doesn’t have a letter from his school, which says that he can work there.?????? We tried to make her understand, that we pay an important amount of money for this school, and that none of the students there work for the school.They spend their time studying, that’s why they are there.
Another person came with a VERY big binder full of paper. they searched. I knew him from my own procedure, which was also very long. After a couple of minutes they told us again, they need this letter from the school. I dared to ask why in the world Vincent should work for the School, he has to study!! No, only with the letter… So we left, and now we are waiting for the school’s replay. I would be very much surprised if..So Vincent is without insurance and I don’t know, how he should get one, if not…
Second of many more stories:
After filling out 17 different papers here in Asheville, me going to the Notary three times, to prove on a paper that I am who I am, many visits to the tax office,two visits of an inspector at our house we finally got the title for our motorcycle which we re-importet to the States where it came from. Christian had already done three weeks of research on the internet in France and had about 20 papers filled out there.
I could go on with these stories, but I won’t. This is just to assure you, you are not alone with adventures like this.
Take care
Claudia
Your story doesn’t make me laugh, Claudia. It makes me sad. What I do realize from your story, though, is the possibilities you have to hold folks accountable. For example, you could 1) complain about an employee’s service, 2) contact management to suggest new systems, 3) raise an appeal through the federal social security system, 4) go to the congressional representative in charge of that location, 5) contact the media, 6) organize a consumer group, etc. All these avenues are either closed, predetermined or extremely risky for Palestinians in Israel. On the other hand, not sure you’d get anywhere in the US either….