By Gil Hoffman

The Magee-Women's Hospital of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has saved the lives of countless women in the Greater Pittsburgh area.
Now the caring hand the hospital provides has reached out over the Atlantic Ocean to Israel's Karmiel-Misgav region, which serves as Pittsburgh's sister community in the Jewish Agency For Israel's Partnership 2000 program.
The United Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh connected Magee three years ago with the Weiner-Na'amat Pittsburgh Center for Women's Health Education that serves the women of the city of Karmiel and the surrounding Misgav Regional Council.
At first, the connection between the large American hospital and the small Israeli center consisted of sharing curricula, resources and educational tools, especially in the Russian language, which helped the center reach out to immigrants from the Former Soviet Union. Then the hospital started to help the center with fundraising.
The partnership advanced to a new peak last week when Magee officials and educators traveled to Karmiel-Misgav to conduct training sessions, workshops and health awareness classes for the Jewish, Arab, Druse and Bedouin women served by the center. Its director, Tammy Kenton, said her guests from Pittsburgh had a huge impact on the local women.
"I feel intense pride that my small non-profit organization that serves a small peripheral region is receiving so much attention, tools and promise for the future from a top American medical facility," Kenton said.  "These last few days have allowed me to improve outreach techniques and find new groups to work with.  The women were intensely proud of the attention they received from friends in America who gave them a sense of self-worth."
The delegation from Pittsburgh included Magee Women's Hospital president Leslie Davis, community health educator and registered nurse practitioner Ebony Hughes, and Jeanne Cooper, the administrator of Magee WomanCare International, the hospital's humanitarian outreach arm.
Cooper said one of the main focuses of the visit was to train child care workers in Misgav's Beduin community. She said she came with preconceived notions about the Bedouin women, but the experience was a pleasant surprise.
"I came with my own set of ideas, thinking that the Bedouin women would be illiterate with limited knowledge about their health," Cooper said. "We found women who possessed a lot of knowledge about the health of themselves and their families. The classes reinforced their interest in learning more."
Cooper and Hughes led a breast health awareness program that took place as part of Yachdav, a course for giving tools to empower women in community activism.  Women who survived breast cancer told their stories in what became a very emotional session. 
"The session brought up fears and myths about breast cancer," Hughes said. "They expressed the same fears I hear from women in the US. We taught them that women can survive with early detection."
Hughes also taught a class that was intended for young mothers, but attracted many elderly women, who insisted on coming because of their appreciation for what Kenton has done to help women in their community. Hughes credited Kenton with inspiring the women to invest time and effort to learn about their health.
"We helped the women realize their importance in their family and their responsibility to stay healthy and be role models for their daughters," Hughes said. "They were very receptive to us, because of the work Tammy has done over the years laying the groundwork of trust. They were so vibrant and so willing to share and learn. There is a lot of potential here."
The three-day visit culminated with a large health fair that attracted 200 women. Many of them had participated in the workshops over the previous three days and brought their children to introduced them to their new friends from Pittsburgh.
They women who attended the fair were given preventive screenings to raise awareness and provided examples of health, nutrition and exercise classes. There was also vibrant dancing and a clown for the children.

"The momentum grew over the three days," Davis said. "The room where the fair was held was packed and hot, but we were all dancing and no one left. It was an amazing experience."
Davis, who was previously CEO of a hospital in Philadelphia, said she had been to Israel many times before, but the trip to Karmiel-Misgav allowed her to see the country through a different lens and meet many wonderful women.  She said she was espeically impressed by the diversity of the Karmiel-Misgav region.
"This has been an amazing trip for me on a professional level," Davis said. "The relationship between people of different cultural backgrounds in Karmiel-Misgav fits with the goal of Magee-Women's Hospital to serve all women regardless of their race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Those values have made us extremely successful in Pittsburgh and enhanced our national reputation."
Davis said she was proud that Magee's international arm was mission-focused and that the hospital could be helpful to women in Israel, a country that she feels strongly connected to.
She said she took pleasure in meeting Misgav mayor Ron Shani, who she praised for his emphasis on helping minorities, and visiting the Rebecca Sieff Hospital in Safed, where she learned new ideas that she intends to implement back home.
Kenton had visited Magee several times and shadowed Hughes in her educational sessions in Pittsburgh. She said attending the sessions Hughes and Cooper conducted provided her with new perspective, allowing her to see her work from the outside looking in.
"They were able to see things I had seen but maybe forgotten," Kenton said. "They saw in these women the immense warmth, empathy and desire to improve their lives."
Hughes, who had never been to Israel before, said she enjoyed touring Christian holy sites in nearby Tiberias. She called the Misgav Region "one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen."
Throughout the trip, the delegation was accompanied by two translators. But they were not always necessary, because the universality of women's health issues and the bond between women crossed barriers of language and culture.
"When I danced with the women at the health fair, I realized how much we all have in common despite our differences," Davis said. "Working with women is an extremely rewarding experience. Women's health is a big issue, because women are creating our next generation. When women are empowered, it breaks down a lot of cultural barriers and great things can happen."