\u201cWe want every child we reach to feel seen, heard and protected. The rights and well-being of the child come first.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis vehicle stands as a testament: the world has not forgotten the children of Gaza.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not just a vehicle: it\u2019s a message of compassion, dignity and hope.\u201d<\/p>\n
Staffed by medics, the popemobile is intended for performing triage and is equipped for examination, diagnosis and treatment, including vaccines, stitches and tests for infections.<\/p>\n
The clinic should be able to perform up to 200 consultations a day. The children will sit in the Pontiff\u2019s chair while being attended to.<\/p>\n
Pope\u2019s \u2018final wish\u2019<\/p>\n
In May 2014, Francis visited Amman, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem, on his second international visit as Pontiff. <\/p>\n
The popemobile was used as he toured Bethlehem, greeting the crowds gathered in Manger Square.<\/p>\n
A gift from the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the converted Mitsubishi was later given to Franciscan friars.<\/p>\n
Pope Francis died on April 21 aged 88, and his final wish for Gaza\u2019s children was that the popemobile should become a mobile health unit, the official Vatican News portal said in May.<\/p>\n
The vehicle was transformed by Caritas, the Catholic humanitarian aid organisation. Costing US$15,000, it has been repurposed and spruced up by Palestinian mechanics. The open sides have been screened off.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe children of Gaza were very close to the heart of Pope Francis,\u201d said Peter Brune, secretary general of the Caritas Sweden branch.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey will sit on the seat of the pope and be treated like the most valuable person on Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, there is no date yet as to when it might receive Israeli authorisation to enter Gaza, where a fragile truce between Israel and Hamas came into effect on October 10 after two years of war that devastated healthcare in the Palestinian territory.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs with all humanitarian assistance, we urgently need access to Gaza,\u201d Caritas secretary general Alistair Dutton told AFP.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re working through the official channels to get this in as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
-Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe want every child we reach to feel seen, heard and protected. The rights and well-being of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[80515,22374,3595,4749,27056,8224,6643,16945,134,527,296,4507,342,111,139,69,90,95426,103012,103013,1865,65770,13797,9863],"class_list":["post-155235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-80515","tag-bethlehem","tag-by","tag-childrens","tag-clinic","tag-deployed","tag-francis","tag-gaza","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-into","tag-late","tag-mobile","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-pope","tag-popemobile","tag-reemerged","tag-today","tag-transformed","tag-used","tag-visit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}