The popemobile manufactured specially for the visit of Pope Francis to Bethlehem in 2014 is being converted to operate as a mobile health clinic for children in Gaza.
The pope sanctioned its transformation into a mobile clinic in the months before his death on April 21st. The vehicle, also called a “papamobile”, had been on display at a café in Bethlehem after the Franciscan order it was donated gave it to Caritas Jerusalem.
Caritas is the humanitarian development organisation of the Catholic church and on the initiative of its operation in Sweden, Cardinal Anders Arborelius approached the pope about using it as a clinic. He is Sweden’s first cardinal, appointed by the pope and viewed as one of the contenders to succeed him.
“We have this popemobile on display as a curiosity in a café in Bethlehem. Why not upscale it and do something with it?” said Peter Brune, secretary general of Caritas Sweden.
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“Skilled Palestinian mechanics started to work on it,” once papal permission had been granted and it is currently being fitted with equipment for basic medical care and treatment including rapid tests for infections, suture kits, syringes and needles, oxygen supply, vaccines and a refrigerator for medicines.
The new mobile clinic is expected to be ready in the next fortnight.
Describing it as a “vehicle of hope”, Mr Brune said “the children can enter the car and be seated in the pope’s seat and receive medical treatment”.
“Caritas Jerusalem is running 10 clinics in Gaza but no humanitarian aid has been allowed into Gaza since March 2nd, more than two months, without any convoys being allowed in.
“We want to see this also as an opportunity to alert the world about this horrible situation, saying ‘you must allow in humanitarian aid’ and the children are those who are suffering. It is both a symbolic dimension and also very practical, and it means this vehicle of hope can come to the children instead of them having to move to the clinics.”
Mr Brune pointed out that during the ceasefire in the war in Gaza more than 20,000 vehicles were allowed in. “This is only one but the symbolic dimension of this is bigger than any truck loaded with material. It’s a message to say please let us not forget about the children.”
Authorisation for the mobile clinic to be use in Gaza “is beyond our control” Mr Brune said. Permission has to be given by COGAT (Co-ordinator of Government Activities in the Territories).
