Maya Ben-David is a medical clown who has been working at Hadassah Mt. Scopus Hospital for the past 8 years, but these days, she is not smiling. She is part of the Dream Doctors project.
Ben-David has become a familiar site in the hospital’s pediatric ward, and has brought a smile to many a young patient during her career. However, as a result of the Hadassah Organization fiscal crisis, she has only received a portion of her salary for over a year and has crumbled financially as a result, but still remained committed and continued to report to work. She was unable to pay her rent or cover car expenses, even having difficulty buying food for herself.
The MyNet News report explains that at one point during her financial crisis, her computer broke. Folks at the Latet NGO heard of her plight and came to her assistance. They also assisted her in building a plan to assist her in recovering financially while giving her support during the difficult period. Today, she has become independent and no longer dependent on her Hadassah salary exclusively. She was assigned a counselor who stuck by her and escorted her until she got her own business up and running.
She told MyNet that life was crumbling, but she could not abandon the children and while she is not exactly sure how, she continued reporting to work and bringing smiles to the faces of the children.
She added that even at the very worst, she never gave thought to abandoning her career, which she is so committed to.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem / Photo: Dream Doctors website)
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One Response
I spoke with someone who works at Hadassah Hospital and has personal knowledge of this case… and it happened 2 years ago. Publishing this article now is nothing more than making a bad name for the hospital and for the people who are trying to make positive progress to help people. This is not to mention any issues about the actual case in question. This needs to be reworded or removed.