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Toronto (special) --Canadian doctors and scientists met with Israeli and Jordanian counterparts in Amman, Jordan, in May 1998 to organize the Middle Eastern Association for Managing Hearing Loss -- an association which has launched a cooperative attack on hereditary hearing disabilities afflicting many people throughout much of the Middle East.

In Jerusalem in July 1999, Canadian, Israeli and Palestinian educators and doctors met at Al Quds University to develop a medical curriculum for that Palestinian university.

Both cooperative efforts were sponsored by the Canadian International Scientific Exchange Program (CISEPO), an organization of volunteers operating under the auspices of Mt. Sinai Hospital and the University of Toronto to promote medical networking and peace building in the Middle East.

CISEPO is principally the creation of Dr. Arnold Noyek, a University of Toronto medical school faculty member who is the chairman of Mt. Sinai's department of otolaryngology (ear, nose and throat). 

Since the early 1970s, when he began delivering lectures in Israel on how new advances in radiology would help otolaryngologists to better diagnose ailments of the ear, nose and throat, Noyek has been the catalyst for bringing Israeli doctors together with counterparts from throughout the world.  Noyek became aware that Israelis felt cut off from new medical advances because of what was in the 1970s and 1980s a relatively successful campaign by Arab countries and organizations to discourage European and international medical groups from inviting Israelis to colloquia and seminars.  "I thought it important to establish a fellowship to enable people to come here and train with us,"

Dr. Arnold Noyek

Noyek recalled. "Through the years we have trained more than 25 key individuals in otolaryngology and related areas."

He said the program "became much more focused in 1984 when we actually gave it its first title as the Canada-Israel Scientific Exchange Program in Otolaryngology,"

Before long, the program was broadened from one simply fostering Canada-Israel exchanges to one that brought in other scientists from other countries as well. Over the years, for example, there was one project for scientists and doctors of Canada, Israel and New Zealand, and another one for those of Canada, Israel and Brazil. Eventually, It was decided to change the meaning of the 'I' in the CISEPO acronym to "International'. 

The reputation of CISEPO benefitted from some "strong successes," Noyek said. Israel's Dr. Rafi Feinmesser once was a CISEPO fellow, and "his work with us was classic: it was published in the New England Journal of Medicine," Noyek said. Today Feinmesser is chairman of otolaryngology at the Rabin Medical Center at Tel Aviv University, where a molecular biology laboratory receives academic and financial assistance from CISEPO.

The Canadian organization also consulted with Hebrew University on establishing a program to help integrate newly arrived scientists from the former Soviet Union.

About five years ago, Phil Aber, a meteorologist who once was head of Canada's national weather service, was persuaded by Noyek to serve as administrator of CISEPO's burgeoning network of doctors, educators, and other volunteers.

Besides having dealt from the inside with the Canadian governmental bureaucracy, Aber was quite familiar with international organizations. He had served for four years as a consultant to the World Meteorological Organization, an arm of the United Nations. "I gained a lot of experience in developing programs, coordinating and negotiating with various nations and different services," Aber said. Noyek and Aber had been friends since childhood and as adults became step-brothers when Aber's mother married Noyek's father following the deaths of their respective spouses. Aber joined the organization at an important time in CISEPO's

Phil Aber

development. The Palestinians and the Israelis were formally negotiating under the Oslo Agreement; Jordan and Israel had established diplomatic relations. It was suggested that with its experience working with Israeli doctors and with doctors of other nations, CISEPO might be in a position to help build peace by fostering Israeli-Arab medical cooperation.

"CISEPO, as a Canadian organization, acts as an umbrella under which individuals can meet and groupings can form," Aber noted. "Over the long term, we hope that CISEPO will be able to step back from the groupings and they will function on their own."

"It took four visits to Jordan before the borders were open just to find the common agendas for programming," Noyek recalled. He vividly remembers his sense of soaring excitement when he "made that walk across the Allenby Bridge (from Israel to Jordan) all by myself and there was a car from King Hussein's private office waiting for me on the other side."

Later, he was joined by three Israeli members of the team -- two Jewish, one Arab -- and the Jordanians "saw that we were very ecumenical and very participatory."

CISEPO'S first full scale conference in Jordan was held on March 3, 1996, the same day that there was a bus bombing in Tel Aviv. "That added a tremendous drama to the event -- to hold it together in the face of people waking up to see it on CNN," Aber said.

Following that conference, CISEPO'S Israel-Jordan program has grown "to the point where we have had several events in Amman, and in Israel," Noyek said. 

Although some of the professional societies in Jordan have opposed "normalization" with Israel, and therefore have opposed CISEPO, the program enjoys the continued support of Jordan's royal family.

Prince Faras Ben Raad, a nephew of the late King Hussein who continues to serve as secretary for health matters under King Abdullah, has served as patron of the CISEPO programs. 

Among the subjects that Jordanians, Israelis and Canadians decided to tackle together was that of hereditary hearing loss.

"Whatever we do, we want it to be needs-based," Noyek said. "It just so happens that an expressed health need in the Middle East is hearing loss, so that is a major focus. ... It affects the Arab population because of the hereditary nature of the disease and the fact that there are a lot of families marrying within families, but it also has an effect in the Arab Israeli villages as well as with the immigrants coming to Israel from North Africa."

Calling hearing loss a "hidden disability," Noyek said that a child with hearing loss will grow up to earn about 60 percent of what a hearing person will earn during a lifetime.

"If a child's hearing loss can be detected early, we can take action to restore it by whatever means, such as hearing aids. Through education and programming, the child can learn speech instead of being consigned to a less fortunate life."

CISEPO itself doesn't "deliver programs on the ground: we do education, research and training," Noyek said. "We train the trainers." He said this is done through a variety of activities including continuing education, international research, and visiting scholar programs.

Because for CISEPO peace-building is as important a goal as health advances, Aber said all the organization's programs are designed in such a way that Arabs and Israelis work and learn side by side.

The Palestinian Authority recently joined Canada, Israel and Jordan in the new Middle Eastern Association for Managing Hearing Loss, and has hosted meetings and events in Gaza and in Nablus.

When the Palestinians recently asked for help in developing a medical curriculum for Al Quds University, CISEPO brought in experts from nearby Hebrew University. Under the Canadian umbrella, such cooperation was possible, notwithstanding tensions among Jerusalemites over the city's political future.

CISEPO's insistence that all programs involve direct Israeli-Arab cooperation is similar to the approach that San Diego State University's Hansen Institute has taken in administering desert agriculture projects teaming scientists in Israel, the Palestine Authority, Jordan, Egypt and Morocco.

An interesting side-effect of the CISEPO program is the level of support it has received from both the Canadian Jewish community and the Canadian Arab community, Noyek said.

"I sit on the national executive of the Canadian Jewish Congress but I am also very heavily involved with the Canadian Palestinian and Canadian Jordanian communities," he added. "I often attend their meetings and I am a speaker for them and so on. And we do joint things where we bring them together with members of the Canadian Jewish community and the Canadian Jewish Congress."

Although CISEPO receives some funding from the Israeli and Canadian governments, Noyek said most financial support "comes from my patients. One family in particular has been supporting our activities for over 20 years."

Like any organization, CISEPO is ever on the look out for more financial support, but Noyek says the organization also is interested in hearing new ideas for Arab-Israeli medical cooperation. 

"Our program is very collaborative and very partner-oriented," Noyek said. "We have involved Americans from the early days and will continue to do so. We are always looking for people who might be interested in becoming involved with us -- either by supporting the program financially or by coming up with proposals that might fold into this."

Noyek can be reached at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Toronto or by e-mail via his secretary Carolyn Prato. Her e-mail address is cprato@mtsinai.on.ca