UNRWA launches new health mobile phone app for Palestinian refugees

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) has announced the launch of a new mobile phone application called "Your Health with UNRWA".

With an Arabic-language interface, the app is based on a booklet about non-communicable diseases (NCDs) published by UNRWA in 2017.

It's aimed at refugees and the general Palestinian public and was developed with financial support from the Japanese government and the World Diabetes Foundation.

The Director of UNRWA's Department of Health, Akihiro Seita, said: "This mobile phone application is very unique in its content that supports NCD patients in their efforts to control their conditions… it is designed to be used by any user in the world who speaks Arabic."

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The application allows NCD patients registered at UNRWA centres to access their health records in real time. Health awareness materials are accessible to anyone.

UNRWA, which was set up in 1950 to provide assistance to the Palestinian refugees who were expelled from their homeland when Israel was created, has recently suffered from a severe lack of funding and led to a rise in poverty among Palestinian refugees.

Donald Trump's administration cut all US funding to the agency in 2018 and Australia recently halved the amount of funding it provided UNRWA

UNRWA's Commissioner-General, Philippe Lazzarini, recently warned that poor refugees were resorting to eating from garbage cans in the Gaza Strip, which Israel has besieged since 2007.

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