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Arab moms watch Israeli guide to nursing

Monday, 11. November 2013 - 18:04

Israeli training videos for breastfeeding mothers score highly in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Morocco, Algeria and Jordan.

Israel’s largest health maintenance organization runs a YouTube channel with informative videos on all aspects of health. In the last weeks, its breastfeeding series recorded an influx of views from a rather unlikely source: the Arab world.

Clalit Health Services first posted the how-to nursing videos in February 2012. For the benefit of its Israeli-Arab members, the videos were available in Arabic. The first months recorded few views. Then, about six months ago, a deluge of viewers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Morocco, Algeria and Jordan were clicking on the YouTube guides. And the numbers are only rising.

Clalit’s Arabic YouTube channel also offers educational videos on pregnancy monitoring, early detection of cancer, preparation for routine checkups and physical therapy. “We never imagined there would be so much viewership beyond our borders,” Lior Wolff, who heads the development of e-health services for Clalit, told Ynet.

So far, the highest number of viewership was recorded in Saudi Arabia, with over 560,000 views, followed by Egypt (168,900), Iraq (90,000) and Morocco (more than 71,000). “It is far beyond the viewership statistics of the target audience in Israel. We believe in promoting the health of the community anywhere, without borders or boundaries, and so we are pleased to contribute to the health of Arab countries,” Wolff told the Israeli news site. “Perhaps through breastfeeding we can help construct a dialogue based on compassion, concern and love.”

Viva Sarah Press

Source: 
israel21c.org
Tags: 
Israeli training videos
mothers score