Since its establishment in 2013, NNUH has welcomed and treated hundreds of children patients with; life-threatening illnesses such as cancer, kidney, and heart diseases. NNUH is the only tertiary care center providing holistic services for critical illnesses for adults and children in the Northern Districts of the West Bank.
In 2022, NNUH admitted 1088 children with life-threatening illnesses, mainly cancer and kidney. In 2023, the numbers increased to 1220 till the date of this study. The numbers of children patients admitted to NNUH are expected to increase not only due to the above explained population growth, but also due to NNUH plans to expand and add more specialized pediatric services like pediatric neurology, pediatric endocrinology, pediatric immunology, and other services that will inevitably increase the numbers of critical pediatric patients.
NNUH has strived over the years to utilize its resources and facilities to ease the suffering of the sick children and make their treatment journey as convenient as possible, despite all financial, logistical, and political limitations and obstacles. It is worth mentioning that living in Palestine alone brings many challenges, and deprives a child from basic rights, resources, and experiences that are given for granted to other children in most countries all over the world. And to top all this deprivation and disappointment with a life-threatening illness is the ultimate worst-case scenario for a child and their family.
From this standing point, NNUH believes in its responsibility to create the window that will allow the light, the hope, and the happiness to streak through the lives of the less fortunate children. Hence, the idea for establishing NNUH Make a Wish Program and Fund Registry emerged.
Research proves that the impact of granting a wish is an important part of a child’s healthcare journey. Wishes can help children feel better, and give them the hope and strength to fight back- and even overcome- a critical illness. In 2015, Make-A-Wish Israel conducted a study* to measure how wish-granting experiences influence medical outcomes of children with critical illnesses. The results revealed wishes not only increased hope, they also improved the children's physical and emotional health. The wishes made the impossible possible — helping children replace fear with confidence, sadness with joy and anxiety with hope.
” It is possible that wishing enabled these children to dream about what seemed unattainable, out of reach, and thus created an experience of achieving the impossible,” researchers wrote.
In another study conducted in 2018 under the title of the impact of a Make-A-Wish experience on healthcare utilization, they found that patients who were granted a wish were more likely to have fewer unplanned hospital and emergency department visits.
Based on the above, granting children their life-changing is an essential part of , and the Make a Wish program has now launched their healing process.
