Empty spaces do not remain empty for very long with 32,000 dedicated Ezer Mizion volunteers eager to fill in and help in the war effort. As soon as a need becAme apparent, it is filled by a group of volunteers who, though strained by the war and extremely busy with family and work responsibilities, sound as if they were simply waiting for the phone to ring. Medical staff at Beilinson Hospital expressed deep appreciation, noting that “in times of crisis, the first call is always to Ezer Mizion.”
Volunteers were called to staff and operate a, spacious family room to serve departments relocated to the underground level. Others to bolster its volunteer information desk team to help guide patients and families to the new department locations, in the wake of the hospital’s move underground. And still others to distribute essential supplies including clothing, baby products, phone chargers, and non-perishable food, to families whose homes were impacted.
The whatsapp phones for the Linked to Life network did not stop buzzing at Ezer Mizion’s Linked to Life volunteer network! We’re talking transporting patients, delivering meals, providing clothes, sending out play kits to kids whose homes were destroyed and who are now in unfamiliar cities and to families with sick children or children with special needs at home without any formal frameworks.
Add to that urgent pharmacy runs cross country some with just before closing time
We fixed many sheltered room doors today because when the request comes from an elderly person or an 81-year-old Holocaust survivor, we don’t leave them hanging.
Huge shoutout to Zevulun Baruchi, our southern Israel coordinator, who handled tough missions from bed where he is fighting sickness but insists on being part of the action. Zevulun, we wish you a speedy recovery!
And then there was the late-night request—just before midnight—for an elderly woman alone in a building with no power. She asked if someone could charge her emergency light. Within 60 seconds, a volunteer was on the way with his own light, leaving it with her until morning so she wouldn’t be in the dark.
Volunteers distributed sandwiches and cold drinks to patients, the wounded, and their companions in the secure underground Emergency Department at Shamir Medical Center. Our arrival sparked a light in the eyes of those who had to leave everything behind and unexpectedly “spend their evening” in the ER. What was distributed was so much more than a sandwich.
On the spiritual level: the Rubinsteins, who’ve been volunteering for many years, week after week at our Midnight Sandwich distribution project in the ER, came in as usual to help out.
On their way home, their car was hit and they miraculously walked away without a scratch.
They truly believe it was their Ezer Mizion volunteering is what protected them from serious harm.
This is what it means to be part of Ezer Mizion.
