Due to the massive emigration of Moroccan Jews from Morocco, the Medical Department of the Joint Distribution Committee is helping the Oeuvres de Secours aux Enfants, the Moroccan Jewish medical organization, tighten and redirect its operations to meet the changing needs of the Jewish community, Samuel L. Haber, JDC executive vice-chairman, reported here today. More than 35,000 Jews still remain in Morocco, many of them helpless and needy, Haber said.
He said that “pressures on OSE to establish new priorities came from the increase in the number of elderly beneficiaries, especially those not living in institutions for the aged….Also, a number of children from families on the community welfare rolls were found through the school health program to be in need of additional medical care.” A third need was for more medical assistance in the framework of a comprehensive family health program for low-income families, he said.
Among the services the JDC is helping to organize are: consultations and home visits for pregnant women, regular home visits to the aged and ill, visits to families with problem children and closer medical supervision of the aged in institutions, Haber said.
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