Aug 24, 2016

Yad Sarah Opens in Yerucham

Since 2007, your donations to the Annual Federation/UJA Campaign have supported the Miami-Yerucham Partnership. Most recently, through the Sam and Gale Berlin Fund, Federation financed the build-out of a new Yad Sarah branch in Yerucham. As Israel’s largest volunteer-staffed organization, Yad Sarah provides health and home care services to more than 500,000 people of all ages, with special programs for children, older adults and those with disabilities. Yad Sarah also receives funding from the Annual Federation/UJA Campaign.

Dr. Revital Levi-Hevroni, Deputy CEO of Suroka Medical Center and Yerucham Chair of the Miami-Yerucham Partnership Committee, acknowledged, “The opening of a branch of Yad Sarah in Yerucham is such good news. Now everyone in the community will have access to much-needed medical equipment, thanks to Yad Sarah and the Greater Miami Jewish Federation.”

For more than a year before the opening of the new branch, Yad Sarah was operating from the apartment of Gilad Palmer. During that time, more than 250 people borrowed medical equipment, including those from the surrounding communities. At Palmer’s request, the city provided a space that Yad Sarah was able to renovate and furnish, while recruiting and training 10 volunteers to run the program. “Until now, the residents of Yerucham in need of special medical equipment had to travel to either Beersheva or Dimona,” added Dr. Levi-Hevroni. “Some were elderly or infirm, and many did not have their own cars.”

In addition to providing medical equipment, Yad Sarah supplies new parents with packages of basic necessities to help them care for their babies. Besides managing the loans, deliveries, returns and repairs of medical equipment, volunteers will also monitor clients with life-sustaining devices to ensure they are working properly. Yad Sarah branches quickly become part of the local area, and tend to expand and grow in order to meet the needs of the community they serve. The Israeli government and local municipalities recognize Yad Sarah as a central partner in the provision of basic medical and other services to the larger community. Without funding from Federation, the branch opening would have had to be deferred until other resources were obtained.