In 2005, Microclinic International piloted the Microclinic Social Network Model in the Occupied Palestinian Territories to serve diabetic individuals in economically depressed areas. Partnering with local doctors, nurses, and students, Microclinic International held large educational lectures in central locations and supported a testing and screening campaign. Microclinic International formed 50 Microclinics, or groups composed of family and friends who share access to education, social support, and important technology like a personal glucose monitoring systems.
These pilot Microclinics show the central importance of psycho-social support in promoting behavioral change and in strengthening impoverished societies as they resiliently respond to significant public health challenges.
Microclinic International subsequently launched and completed a one-year campaign as the humanitarian crisis deepened in the OPT, and supported a comprehensive diabetes educational program, providing emergency medical supplies, and holding social activities for diabetic Palestinians.
[This pilot project was funded with personal donations and grants and awards from the University of California, Berkeley, The Haas Scholars Program, The Firedoll Foundation, and The Strauss Foundation. For more information about Microclinic International’s involvement in the West Bank, please read Daniel Zoughbie’s dispatches, which were written for the University of California, Berkeley’s News Center while establishing Microclinics in the West Bank.]