Yad Sarah, with its history of helping the public through lending medical rehabilitative equipment, has ventured into a new project to improve quality of life for the vision impaired by lending equipment to assist them in reading and everyday activities. The center is housed in Rishon LeZion at Yad Sarah's Guidance and Resource Center.

Those with vision loss experience difficulties functioning in daily life. Problems range from difficulty in reading, where a brighter light is necessary, to severe vision loss which makes it difficult to navigate the home environment. People who suffer from a host of vision impairing diseases, including macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma, can now benefit from the variety of hand and stand magnifiers, telescopes and other visual aids available for loan. In addition, the library has several valuable closed circuit TV systems, which provide the greatest magnification power.

The Malki Foundation was established at Yad Sarah take care of the needs of families, in Jerusalem and the rest of Israel, who are caring at home for children with severe disabilities. Among its goals is to improve the disabled child’s quality of life and that of his or her family by lending special equipment for an extended period of time. Malki Foundation is assisted by donations from individuals and businesses.

In its first half year of operation, the Malki Foundation has lent 35 items of children’s special equipment to 27 families who are caring for such children at home.  The most popular items are the Major Buggy (an extra large, lightweight, sturdy folding stroller designed for special-needs children with adjustable back, head and leg supports and numerous other optional features), bath seat with harness, and patient hoist.

Among new items being added to the lending inventory for severly disabled children are the vestibular platter (to sit on and spin around) and the reverse wheeled walker.

Thanks to the special endowment of the Malki Foundation, the families can borrow the equipment for up to a year (as compared to the three-month maximum for other Yad Sarah loans).  The long-term use of these items gives the family time to try out different ideas and decide what to purchase, and is ideal for items that need to be replaced by larger sizes as the child grows.

Ricky: One Boy's Story
Ricky is a 10-year-old boy who is bedridden, on a respirator and suffering from multiple disabilities.  His is the only case of the kind in Israel.  He lies at home in Afula in a child-sized hospital bed borrowed from the Malki Center at Yad Sarah.  Previously he was in a small playpen to which access was very difficult since the bars opened inwardly, taking up much of the space inside.  The bed has made it possible to keep Ricky at home.  The family is now looking into a prone standing aid, bath seat with harness, orthopedic aids with back support for the bed, a hoist, and an electric wheelchair.  All these items can be supplied by the Malki Foundation at Yad Sarah.