ANT KATZ

In the first two days of the “SAJR/MDA Click-athon Campaign” 20 users donated R16 090 – an average of over R800 each. Ten more donations were made yesterday, MDA-SA Chairman Mark Hyman (pictured above) told SAJR Online this morning.

“We have been overwhelmed by the fantastic response,” said Mark. He says if yesterday’s ten donors gave the same average contribution, they will have raised over R24 000 in three days.

Magen David Adom (MDA) Israel says South Africans have always been among their biggest donors.

“It means a lot to us,“ Yonatan (Yonnie) Yagodovsky, PICTURED RIGHT, MDA Israel’s director for international relations told SAJR last week.

“Thank you for being with us in daily routine life and especially in times like this – your contributions are way beyond fiscal. We feel, no, we know that you are standing beside us – not behind us!”

Where your donations go

Before any boots were on the ground in Gaza, MDA’s operational costs were almost R1 mil a day more than usual. Now, that figure has increased considerably.

“Donations from SA are immediately connected to a patient currently receiving treatment in Israel – meaning that the donor becomes an active person who is now involved in treating patients and victims – no matter the size the size of the donation,”

MDA’s equipment Wish-list

Due to the current situation and day-to-day escalation of the need for their services, MDA has published an urgent need for, they say, they “foresee the need for the following medical life-saving equipment”. PICTURED LEFT:

• Standard ambulances
• Mobile intensive care units
• Corpals 3 monitors defibrillators
• Medium easy CPR respirators; and
• Motorola ET1 tablets.

MDA-SA executive secretary, Beulah Hyman, can be contacted at all hours (except on Shabbos) on the special SAJR/MDA hotline at 079 718-2471 for further enquiries – particularly concerning MDA’s equipment wish-list.

All resources are being used

Apart from dealing with rocket attacks on the home front and supporting the evacuation of wounded soldiers from the field, MDA still has to carry out their daily routine of dealing with the needs of the civilian population, says Yonnie.

Only now, their members go out wearing helmets and flak-jackets “hoping no missiles explode, or debris lands on them,” he explains.

In every ambulance they carry spare helmets and flak-jackets because if an air raid siren goes off, they have to evacuate any patients in the ambulance and take shelter.

“We could be carrying a heart-attack victim or a lady going into labour,” he says, “but once the sirens go we have to all get out.”

You’re with us

One of Yonnie’s colleagues, a first-responder in Jerusalem, told a group of SA medi-cycle (three-wheel ambulance) donors some time back: “Each time I respond to a call, one of you is with me.” Yonnie says volunteers can do 12 calls a day, or more, “because of our donors. We feel them. They are with us,” he said.

LEFT: First photos by MDA photographer from the scene of a rocket attack on Yahud in the Tel Aviv area this morning

Personnel-wise, says Yonnie, we are blessed by having many volunteers – not all Jews – Muslims, Druse and Christians are among them, he told SAJR. And they treat everyone equally, too. “A few days ago,” said Yonnie, “two Bedouin girls were injured near Beersheva, one seriously.” Nobody is immune to the rocket attacks, he said.

MDA was at its full complement, which means their normal 2 000 permanent staffers and a further 13 000 volunteers. Where they normally have around 300 ambulances on the road at any given time, he said, they were using 600 extra. “All 900 ambulances and other emergency vehicles are manned 24/7,” he explained. Their drivers go home with them waiting for the calls to come in.

No time for snail-mail, says Mark

Mark Hyman told SAJR today that he was amazed by the ability for SAJR readers to pay directly into over their secure credit card portal. “It’s instant,” said the MDA-SA chair, “we are used to sending out pre-paid enveloped by snail-mail, waiting for the return-paid envelopes to come back with cheques, depositing them and waiting for them to clear.”

MDA needs our help right now, he says, and the sooner the better. MDA is saving many lives in Israel, daily, and now SA contributions are able to help more quickly.

Click-athon campaign

SAJR Online is running a CLICK-ATHON campaign in co-operation with MDA which users can see on every page on the website. MDA, which is an NGO and runs all medical emergency services in Israel including first reposes and ambulance services, are saving countless lives daily – but at an additional cost to them of almost R1 mil a day!

“SA provides 5,25 per cent of MDA Israel’s total income,” says Yonnie. “I grew up and live in Jerusalem where the MDA station was built by our friends and donors from SA in 1968 and maintained by MDA-SA for many years.

We continue to receive significant support from Jewish and Christian donors in SA – extremely meaningful support,” he told Jewish Report yesterday.

“SA has been one of the most senior MDA societies for the past 68 years – we have a long history together  – you are one of our most successful communities!”