Empowering communities through home safety: Joint Israeli-Palestinian initiative to support healthy communities

Unintentional injuries are a major public health problem in both Israeli and Palestinian communities. The most effective ways to prevent accidents are education to effect changes in behavior and environment. Effective interventions must take into account cultural and social expectations and norms, best done at a grass-roots level. ECHOS works with community members engaging them to create relevant responses – improving not only personal, family and communal health, but also their ability to deal more effectively with daily challenges.
A second, no less important goal of ECHOS is to strengthen connections among Palestinian and Israeli professionals and communities. In the current political environment, Palestinians and Israelis can find few issues for common ground for discussions. The focus on a universal value such as the well-being of children provides a foundation on which to build bridges.

ECHOS activities include training of community leaders and health educators to expand human resource capacity for home safety, development of culturally relevant educational and training resources, and data collection on the circumstances leading up to accidents. Over a 3-year period, over 100 professionals and community advocates have participated in ECHOS activities.