{"id":5940,"date":"2022-04-20T11:35:32","date_gmt":"2022-04-20T07:35:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/?p=5940"},"modified":"2022-04-20T11:42:26","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T07:42:26","slug":"the-life-of-an-aud-student-as-a-volunteer-paramedic-in-palestine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/the-life-of-an-aud-student-as-a-volunteer-paramedic-in-palestine\/","title":{"rendered":"The Life of an AUD Student as a Volunteer Paramedic in Palestine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While most university students dream of going on vacation to discover exotic places, Palestinian Reckaz Qawasmeh would rather spend that time doing something useful for others.

The 20-year-old business student from the American University in Dubai spends his holidays in the West Bank to serve as a paramedic for the Palestinian Medical Relief Society. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The insignia of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society in a paramedic\u2019s van in Hebron city, Palestine on 06\/04\/2018, credited to Reckaz Qawasmeh.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He joined the Hebron-based organization as a volunteer when he says he was only 11. It was then an exception as the minimum age to volunteer is 12. Underage volunteers can normally come for the day to learn basic first-aid procedures and even get a paramedic license.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Palestinian Medical Relief Society was founded by Mustafa Barghouti in 1979 and established its headquarters in the West Bank. The NGO has since trained more than 40,000 volunteers and has currently more than 500 workers in the West Bank, according to its website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During a training session in the old city of Hebron when he was 13 years old, some Jewish settlers under the protection of the Israeli military broke into the paramedic’s training site. Qawasmeh still remembers that as he moved to retrieve a piece of equipment from his bag, a settler stabbed him with a knife. The wound in his underarm later required 60 stitches. 

\u201cI was surrounded by soldiers who denied me any medical help,\u201d explained Qawasmeh. \u201cSo, I took off my shirt and training vest, placed it where I was bleeding, and tied a bandage to decrease the blood flow.\u201d 

After about an hour during which he was in and out of consciousness, the soldiers allowed him medical assistance. \u201cMy trainer had seen how I tended to myself,\u201d he says. \u201cSo, after I was stitched up, they gave me my paramedics’ license and a hero\u2019s welcome at the paramedics’ station.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Qawasmeh experienced another traumatic event in July last year when his team rushed to Bethlehem where Israeli soldiers had raided the refugee camp of Dheisheh. There, Qawasmeh accidentally slipped and was injured by a gunshot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The work of a paramedic in the region isn\u2019t easy, especially that according to Qawasmeh both the Israeli military and the Palestinians often block or delay medical help.

Conservative people can sometimes also obstruct the work of the paramedics. \u201cA male paramedic cannot help a female, it\u2019s very taboo,\u201d he says. \u201cI cannot provide first aid as a male, I\u2019d have to wait for a female paramedic to come, but that isn\u2019t possible most of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He remembers one incident during a graduation party when a woman in a car was hurt by the fireworks. \u201cIt fell in the car and burnt the girl\u2019s hands, chest and neck,\u201d says Qawasmeh. \u201cI was right next to the car so I couldn\u2019t just ignore it, but the driver was constantly yelling \u2018she\u2019s a woman you can\u2019t touch her!\u2019\u201d Although Qawasmeh did not then get in trouble with the police, he says his license may have been taken away had the male driver been an influential person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite all the hardships, Qawasmeh however seems to gladly embrace challenges thanks to his sense of duty. He continues to travel to Hebron for two months every year to serve as a paramedic.

His other passion in life is business. And just as his sense of duty led him to become a paramedic, he is eager to learn everything about it, especially how business can improve people\u2019s lives. For that, he is currently studying for a Bachelor of Business Administration degree at the American University in Dubai. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Image.jpeg\"\/
Palestinian Reckaz Qawasmeh in the campus of the American University in Dubai. April 2022. Photo by Kathrine Hamdan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While most university students dream of going on vacation to discover exotic places, Palestinian Reckaz…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[48],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5940"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5940"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5947,"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5940\/revisions\/5947"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}