“Never in my life did I think that I would rely upon volunteers to come to my house once a month in order to take me to my favorite spot in the world. The place where I feel the most comfortable and that I yearn to be at the most is a place that I will no longer be able to go without your help.”
This is what Yehuda, a senior citizen in Israel wrote in a letter to his Ten Kavod volunteers from United Hatzalah in Kfar Saba who arrive each week at his home in order to assist in providing him with free medical care, regular check-ups, and companionship. The volunteers, also regularly take Yehuda in an ambulance to the beach for a picnic with his wife. Yehuda is an amputee who lost both of his legs and is unable to leave his home without medical assistance and oversight.
Every month, volunteers from the Kfar Saba chapter pick up the local ambulance, go shopping for the couple’s lunch, and then pick up Yehuda and his wife from their home and bring them to the beach. “Each time we come to take Yehuda and his wife, they become overwhelmed with emotion, and so do we. There isn’t a volunteer anywhere in the city who doesn’t know Yehuda’s story. We all take turns helping them on their monthly outing and we all enjoy doing it immensely. Yehuda is an incredibly intelligent and interesting person who enjoys conversing with others. He has touched all of us,” said Nitzan Reich, who heads the Kfar Saba chapter.
United Hatzalah’s Ten Kavod project (Hebrew for Giving Honor), sends emergency medical response volunteers to visit elderly people who live on their own once a week. The volunteers check up on the elderly participants in the program to make sure that they are in good health and taking their medications should they need to do so. If there is a drastic change or anomaly, then the volunteer will report it to the patient’s family doctor who can then follow up directly with the patient.
“We have volunteers across Israel visiting more than 750 participants in the program,” said Program Director Shmuel Rosengarten. “The group in Kfar Saba is especially active as the volunteers there have actively adopted not just the participants but all of the elderly who live in the city and are in need of assistance. The volunteers in that chapter are a shining example of how by giving you can make a positive change in your entire community.”
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