The Gaza Strip, site of many violent clashes and killings, one of the more dangerous places on earth. Few actually move here because they want to. But Australian Jean Calder has voluntarily made Gaza her home for the past decade.

DR JEAN CALDER: Even when I was very young, I was interested to perhaps work in a developing country or a problem area because, really, living in Australia is - we're very advantaged, it's privileged, and I feel very keenly about the international component of humanity and I figured I'd had a good life and I should share.

At 68, most of us would like to be having an easy time in retirement, but Jean has literally put her life on the line at times to help disabled and disadvantaged Palestinians.
Jean's passion took her from the comfort and security of Australia in 1981 straight into the turmoil that was Lebanon's civil war. Jean and the Palestinian refugees in their camps were confronted by massacres, kidnappings and continual fighting. Now, after a quarter of a century in the camps, she lives and works in the worst-affected areas of the Gaza Strip, Khan Yunis.

DR JEAN CALDER: I became more aware of the Palestinian issue and I also became aware of the fact that many people who were concerned about human rights found it difficult to deal with this one because of the misrepresentation. To indicate that you were concerned about Palestinians often branded you as being something bad and this seemed to be unfair to me. It was not representing the people. So I thought this was what I'd like to do but I didn't know how I could because my background was education, physical education, recreation and it's a bit hard to describe yourself, I mean, "What are you going to do there?"

Although not a doctor of medicine, having worked with disabled people in Australia, Jean realised her physical education skills could be used by the Palestinians. The Al-Amal City Centre of Ability Development, which was nothing but an old garage when Jean set it up 10 years ago, has grown to be an internationally recognised centre that helps rehabilitate men, women and children suffering mental or physical disabilities.
She came at the invitation of the brother of the late Yasser Arafat, Dr Fathi Arafat, who founded the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, the PRCS, which is the equivalent of the Red Cross.

DR JEAN CALDER: So his idea was to bring in a community centre into this area. He also had a policy of employment of people with disability. He wanted to give the concept that people with disability, if given the opportunity, can serve their community.

Jean lives across the road from the centre with three disabled Palestinians. She's cared for them for the last 25 years.
In 1981, when Jean Calder was working in Lebanon, she heard about two abandoned Palestinian orphans.

DR JEAN CALDER: Somebody had asked me, or told me that there were a couple of children in the children's hospital, disabled children, that were not getting any stimulation. I started to work with them on a daily basis.
Actually, I can remember walking through the camps that were a bit muddy with Hamoudi on my back and my little bag with toys and things and I thought, "Jean, this is you," I mean this is what I wanted to do.

Hamoudi has severe cerebral palsy and suffered extreme facial injuries when an Israeli bomb landed on his hospital in Beirut when he was a child. Dalal has been blind since birth and is now Jean's constant companion and translator. Badr is badly crippled on his left side and works at the centre with Jean and Dalal. This is now her family.
Jean divides her time between the fractured regions of the Palestinian territories, frequently travelling between Gaza and the West Bank.

DR JEAN CALDER: Being director of rehabilitation I have to go frequently to the West Bank and check on the - because the Red Crescent's branches in many of the towns - to check what they were doing and to give any advice and help.

This centre in Nablus includes a large number of hearing-impaired children. But since the intifada and subsequent Israel restrictions on movement, the numbers attending have dropped. While in the West Bank, Jean and Dalal take a moment to visit an old friend from their Beirut days.

FRIEND, (Translation): Hello Jean, how are you? I've missed you.

DR JEAN CALDER, (Translation): Yes, it's been a while.

FRIEND, (Translation): I completed an MA.

DR JEAN CALDER (Translation): God bless you. So I heard. You have an MA from London.

FRIEND, (Translation): From Edinburgh in Scotland. You look healthy, thank god. Nothing has changed about you. You didn't change a lot.

DR JEAN CALDER: Why should I? Why should I!

During the massacres in Beirut in 1982, Jean and the girls hid in the basement of a hospital when the Lebanese Christian militia went on an orgy of killing. Outside, the Israeli army stood by and watched. Jean was subsequently expelled by the Lebanese authorities, who she says were instructed by the Israelis.

DR JEAN CALDER: Without questioning I was locked into a room with a lot of people. When I was eventually questioned, it seemed to be that the concern was the fact that I had spoken to the Australian media back in September following the massacre.

Remember when we were at the bottom of the steps before we went up? Yeah. The soldiers would put their guns and say..."Get up," and I used to say, "How?", because we had the wheelchairs, and they used to come running down the steps with their guns like this. It was like a bad movie and I thought, "This is the end of us." I was getting really worried then and I think if we hadn't gotten out by night time with the International Red Cross, it would have been the end.

Time to head back to the Gaza Strip. For Jean, like the locals, getting around is a constant problem. All movement is closely monitored by the Israeli defence forces. Travelling out of the West Bank into Israel and back into the Gaza Strip means running a gauntlet of Israeli checkpoints and road blocks.

REPORTER: Do you think that the Israelis are justified in having these checkpoints saying that they're trying to stop potential suicide bombers? Israel says it's security.

DR JEAN CALDER: But what about security of Palestinian people? They're in more danger than the Israelis.

REPORTER: How?

DR JEAN CALDER: If the helicopters come in and do targeted killings, hundreds of houses are demolished, because they want the land or they want a gap between - I mean nothing makes very much sense. I mean I don't - I'm not a political person, I'm not involved in this, so I'm just talking from the position of how the people are dealing with their lives. The problem of security has arisen because of the occupation.

At least we don't have to walk to the end, he's brought the car here. Step up.

Even when Jean and Dalal make it into Gaza, the journey is not over. To get to the south, they need to pass yet another checkpoint, that separates the Palestinians from the Israeli settlers.

DR JEAN CALDER: We're still waiting.

REPORTER: Is this normal?

DR JEAN CALDER: This is normal. Actually, this is not bad. We've only been here about - 20 minutes, half an hour's nothing. Normal is maybe from half an hour to an hour or even up - it can be up to three hours. If it's really bad it's longer than that.

REPORTER: So how does this then affect your work and how does it impact on your work?

DR JEAN CALDER: Well, for the people coming through they're coming late. Now this is my secretary. Fi Harakat.

Finally, they arrive back at the Al-Amal City Centre of Ability Development. Because of Israeli restrictions, it's taken nine hours and an overnight stop to travel about 150km.
As well as rehabilitation, the centre offers counselling for many clients and their families that are having a hard time coping with their disabilities. Jean and the centre's social worker are visiting a young girl who still has a bullet lodged in her head. Her family say she was shot by the Israelis. They've just returned from treatment in Egypt where specialists said it was too dangerous to remove. The little girl Hoda is now blind.

DR JEAN CALDER: She and the family have had tremendous trouble in dealing with the situation. They're getting some counselling and they're getting help from various places, but they - see, it's like, it was almost, I think the grandparents were almost saying it would have been better if she'd died.

HODA’S MOTHER, (Translation): We travelled back and forth twice, to no avail. Atrophy of the brain cells caused by the shooting. She was put under medical observation for five days yet she was discharged without any improvement.

HODA’S GRANDMOTHER, (Translation): They all wanted to marry Hoda and told her they loved her, the Egyptian doctors.

Jean tries to convince the parents that Hoda needs to attend the centre for rehabilitation. As far as the future is concerned, Dr Jean Calder says that, as long as she is wanted and needed by the Palestinians, she'll stay and continue her work.

DR JEAN CALDER: I'm Australian and proud to be. I'm also just as proud to be standing beside the Palestinians. I think the fact that I am a foreigner here, they feel it's moral support. They're not alone in the world.