The motto of Ezer Mizion is ‘Choosing Life’ and it will do anything in its power to save a patient’s life… even getting involved in garbage.
A young girl was battling a monster named Cancer and needed every bit of help she could get. What she did not need was a massive onslaught of bacteria invading her home. Yet keeping her home relatively bacteria-free was impossible with a garbage heap more than three stories high right outside, in her courtyard. Another resident, an 82 year old man, considered the commonly-owned courtyard as his private space for his ‘collections’ and for 40 years (!) continued to dump garbage, junk, scrap metal, plastic containers, bottles, barrels, wooden rods and planks, and more. In spite of the residents’ begging him to remove this health hazard, he adamantly refused. The residents clearly needed direction in combating the problem and now, with one resident fighting for her life, the issue became crucial.
Ezer Mizion provides assistance in many areas: psychological therapy, practical help, medical referrals, legal advice regarding insurance. Its bone marrow registry facilitates life-saving bone marrow transplants. “Would they also help out in the issue of garbage?” the family wondered.
True to its motto, Ezer Mizion, together with Hadassah Hospital, set the wheels in motion by contacting Rabbi Eliezer Rauchberger, Chairman of the “Yahadut HaTorah-Torah Jewry” bloc in the Municipality who was shocked at what he saw and contacted the sanitation department, insisting that the garbage be removed immediately. Legal bumps were smoothed out in record time. In three days, seven workers labored to cart away over ten tons of garbage. Large families of rodents were evicted from what they had assumed to be a permanent home.
Ezer Mizion would like to express its appreciation to Mr. Tzion Shetrit, head of the Sanitation Department, Mr. Uzi Bondok, director of the Neighborhood Administration, and Chaim Nargasi, the City’s Deputy Attorney General, who handled a difficult situation with the seriousness that it required.
Ezer Mizion is happy to have added another weapon to the arsenal of its young patient. May she merit a complete recovery in the New Year.
