The “Salem project”.

So far the first part to help the deaf 13 years old Bedouin Kid Salem from Westbank has been successful.The donations after the story was published on Austrians newspaper “Kronen Zeitung”, should be enough to buy Salem the two new hearing aids he needs.The exact price of the hearing aide’s i will now after a hearing test of tomorrow in Bethlehem.The Price depends on how powerful they have to be.According to a shop here in Jerusalem it will be in between 650 and 3500 Euros each,but i really hope to get it cheaper somewhere else.

The “second part” i much more complicated and needs allot of patience and time.I contacted several “hard of hearing” help-associations in the hope to make a doctor visit, testing and the purchase of the products easier,but it was just a waste of time.People say they will call back, or are on vacation or moved to another place and are busy now…There are also big problems like Palestinians are not allowed without special permission to leave Westbank and to use all these facilities in Israel.The fact that i don’t have a car and the family lives pretty far in between Lazariah and the dessert,plus they speak only Arab doesn’t make it easier….In a few words:we just cant ride with they’re donkey(btw, it just gave birth to a “baby donkey”) to the next modern hospital in Jerusalem.

So i arranged a hearing test in a Hospital in Bethlehem that is located in Westbank, so we don’t have to cross the checkpoints.I hope the results of this test will be recognised and useful to get the right Hearing Aid anywhere i want.I already made contact with a Austrian producer not far from my Hometown St.Peter.

I couldn’t do all this without the immense help of Lisa Talesnick.The Canadian Journalist who lives since 30 years in Israel,drives me around and helps me out with Arab and Hebrew translations.

I hope to give you next week some good news about all this.

Weitersagen