Country: Israel

Organization: CHEN - Patient fertility association

Year the initiative began: 2006

Project Website: www.amotatchen.org

Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions:

• Main barrier addressed: Lack of collaboration
• Main insight addressed: Establish community incentives

What is the goal of your innovation?
We wish to encourage couples with fertility problems to come to tour the holly places in Israel and to have high rate of success fertility treatments (IVF).

How does your approach support or embody geotourism?
The holly places in Israel are unique and meaningful to all people around the globe. The combination of medical tourism with the special places of Israel, the holly places, the Dead Sea as the lowest place in the world are the main goal. Fertility treatments and IVF (in vitro fertilization ) are very frustrated and hard - combining it with an holiday in Israel can contribute to the success rate.

Describe your approach in detial. How is it innovative?
In most of the countries IVF costs more than a couple can usually pay. The need of IVF is the need of about 105 of the couples in the western world and more than double in other places. We offer the best treatment in less than 1/3 of the prise with a relaxing visit in the holly places. It suites all people since we have in Israel a combination of holly places to all religions. This innovation is unique and we are the fist to combine between the two ideas.

What types of partnerships or professional developement would be most beneficial in spearding your innovation?
The collaboration needed between medical doctors, patients and patients associations like ours is the basic development of this idea. We are in a global reality and it should be also be in medical car and in fertility care as well as in tourism.

In one sentence describe what kind of impact, change, or reform your approach is intended to achieve.
Fertility patients may become happy parents without being rich people and may visit the important holly places to them that otherwise won' be able to visit.

Describe the degree of success of your approach to date. Clearly define how you measure quantitative and qualitative impact in terms of how your approach contributes to the sustainability or enhancement of local culture, environment, heritage, or aesthetics? How does your approach minimize negative impacts?
up to now we had about 50 couples that apply for details about the project. We hope to have more in the coming year and we need to publish it more and more. The project will upgrade the IVF global approach and the impact of tourism - vacation of the success of the treatments.

How does your program promote traveler enthusiasm, satisfaction, and engagement with the locale?
Since we are talking about medical tourism - it will upgrade the satisfaction of the couples that will visit Israel and also success with the treatment and will become parents. The local community will be enrich since we may assist other people - huge satisfaction comes with the success.

In what ways are local residents actively involved in your innovation, including participation and community input? How has the community responded to or benefited from your approach?
The project is on one hand a medical project as well as tourism project you may not divided it and the benefits are on both sides of the project. Medical system will benefit from it and the tourism system too.

Describe how your innovation helps travelers and local residents better understand the value of the area's cultural and natural heritage, and educates them on local environmental issues. How do you motivate them to act responsibly in their future travel decisions?
The holly places of Israel with the natural places like the Dead Sea are unique so it is important t encourage people to visit them and to guard them for better future.

Is your initiative financially and organizationally sustainable? If not, what is required to make it so? What is the potential demand for your innovation?
Fertility-tourism is financially sustained project .

How is your initiative currently financed? If available, provide information on your finances and organization that could help others. Please list: Annual budget, annual revenue generated, size of part-time, full-time and volunteer staff.
We are fully volunteered association. The project is managed voluntarily and the couples will pay for the medical treatment and the tourism part - but - the total price will be less than 1/3 of the treatment coted at their homeland. We have a very small budget of Euro - 7000 per annum. We can continue only because we are volunteers.25 people volunteered in our association.

What is your plan to expand your approach? Please indicate where/how you would like to grow or enhance your innovation, or have others do so.
We hope that the innovation will grow and we will have as many as couples that need our services . We will add more volunteers and if our budget will grow we may published our innovation more in order to reach more needed couples.

What are the main barriers you encounter in managing, implementing, or replicating your innovation? What barriers keep your program from having greater impact?
Lack of budget to advertise our project is the main barrier.

What is the origin of your innovation? Tell your story.
The idea came up in my mind a year and half ago and after the board of our association approved it we asked for the cooperation of the ministry of tourism in Israel. We got the the approved and the cooperation but on the budget level. So we are actually struggle for the budget to publish it to all needed couples around the world. I am trying to meet other patients association vis conferences we had in order to publish the idea more and more.

Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers' marketing material.
I am 49 years old and I have M.A. in public policy from Tel-Aviv University. Married to Itamar, a computer specialist and we have 2 children 13 and 9 years old. I established CHEN - PATIENT FERTILITY ASSOCIATION after having long fertility treatments and it is names after my father that died just 3 weeks before our eldest son was born. I am a project's manager in my profession and now I am fully volunteer in the association. I suffer from sever Arthritis and working from home. I also social activist in my city of Holon in the women council and the volunteers council as well as in the Arthritis association in Israel.

Please write an overview of your project. This text will appear when people scroll over the icon for your entry on the Google map located on teh competition homepage.
Fertility tourism to Israel is a project that offers couples that need IVF ( in-vitro-fertilization) treatments to do it in Israel with the combination of touring the holly places in Israel. IVF is a frustrated treatment and we believe that the combination of it with tourism - vacation and the holly places will contribute to its success along with the high level of medical system we have in Israel. CHEN - Patient Fertility Association will assist you, to become an happy family.

Contact Information
Mrs. Ofra Balaban
Chair
CHEN - Patient fertility association
13 Vitkin St. Holon
amotat_c2NETVISION.NET.IL