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According to PMRS, the main provider of prosthetic limbs in Gaza is the ArtificialLimb and Polio Center (ALPC) in Gaza City. It supported by the ICRC, from which itreceives funding. Generally speaking, all patients needing artificial limbs have accessto this service, since expenses are covered by UNRWA, if the patient is defined asa Palestine refugee, or by MoH/donors/NGOs, if not. However, there are problemswith financial access to other essential accessories such as wheelchairs, glasses andhearing aids.The second FFM team visited a private church that serves as a full-time residentialfacility for permanently disabled and impoverished individuals, run by the RomanCatholic Sisters of Charity in Shuja’iya, Gaza City. 157 It serves babies from 10 daysold to children of both sexes aged 10-12 years, and disabled women whose familiesdo not provide for them. There are no existing facilities for similarly disabledmen. According to the Sister in Charge, there are no other residential facilities fordisabled children in Gaza. She stated that there are facilities for physiotherapy, butno full-time residential facilities. Families bring their disabled children to live here.They are able to visit their children on Fridays (visitors’ day). She believes that therelatively large number of children with congenital and genetic anomalies is due toconsanguinity. During the war, there were 28 children living at the facility. Fewerchildren were housed there after the war. Displaced people stayed in the church fora short time during the war. They then left for UNRWA schools which housed thedisplaced. She heard bombing all around the area of the church during the war. Whentold to evacuate, there were 4 sisters and 24 severely disabled children in the facility.Despite the warnings, they did not evacuate, as they could not physically move thechildren and women in their facility. Instead, they brought mattresses down to thebottom level of the facility and prayed that the Israeli military would see fit to notbomb a church.In addition to the facilities within Gaza, patients (in theory) can be referred to moreadvanced rehabilitation centres in the West Bank, including the Bethlehem ArabSociety for Rehabilitation in Beit Jalla, the Abu Raya Rehabilitation Centre in Ramallahand others. Others have been referred to Turkey or Germany for rehabilitation. 158However, such referrals are dependent on securing the necessary paperwork aswell as obtaining a financial commitment from the Fatah-led Palestinian Ministry ofHealth in Ramallah, West Bank.157Interviewed on on 12 Sep 2014 by the second FFM team.158For more information regarding referrals see Chapter 5.75