The national emergency continues here in Israel and Yad Sarah is working around the clock to meet the needs of citizens in the north.
Yad Sarah runs 20 branches in the North of the country, and the first objective was determining how to operate the greatest number of branches as possible in protected structures, to facilitate continued service to the public while protecting the safety and well-being of the volunteers.
But we can not do this alone.
Hundreds of injured Israelis are turning to us for help every day. Demand for our equipment is soaring. Yad Sarah needs your help to purchase additional oxygen machines and tanks, wheelchairs, crutches, personal alarms, hospital beds and other urgently needed equipment NOW.
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Yad Sarah is doing its utmost at this time, and at great risk. Our volunteers are delivering medical equipment and prescription medicine to those unable or afraid to venture out. Since yesterday we have been helping to distribute activity kits to engage the 500,000 children and youth now confined in bomb shelters. As this emergency continues Yad Sarah will do its utmost to meet each new need that arises.
Whether supplying mattresses to bomb shelters, transporting patients to critical dialysis treatments in hospitals or ferrying the wheelchair bound to the relative quiet of Jerusalem, YadSaraVan drivers are on the road, despite the constant threat of missile attacks.
Workers and volunteers continue to serve at northern branches, offering services which the elderly and disabled depend upon, even though Yad Sarah in Kiryat Ata, Kiryat Tivon and Kiryat Motzkin, now operates from bomb shelters.
In Haifa, on Monday, a YadSaraVan returning disabled children home from school, miraculously missed being hit by a Katyusha rocket that fell 200 meters away. Fortunately, no one was hurt. The driver, Danny Aetius, quickly got the children safely home, just one example of selfless dedication.
Because Yad Sarah is widely known and people are not sure where to turn for help, everyone is calling us. The medical lending hotline phones ring constantly. Volunteers offer their support, send assistance or refer them to an appropriate helping organization.
Our emergency alarm response volunteers are also very busy calling each subscriber in the north asking if Yad Sarah can help. Most of these elderly and homebound live alone and many are in urgent need of food, medication and a caring word.
What is in store?
Due to the security situation and the large number of injured, the number of people requesting Yad Sarah's help increased. Concurrently, the number of people returning equipment decreased, whether because they had left their homes for the South or because they feared leaving their homes for no apparent need. To insure there would not be a shortage of equipment in stock, the Yad Sarah administration preemptively decided to order additional medical equipment costing thousands of NIS. Among the items ordered: wheelchairs, walkers, bathing chairs and oxygen concentrators. In addition, Yad Sarah is trying to clarify the feasibility of air transporting medical equipment rather than importing it by sea. All this is to prevent a shortage liable to occur due to the situation.
Left: : Yad Sarah Branches in Nortern part of Israel Below: Underground lending station in Nahariya hospital
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