(PHOTOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE)
A special evening honoring volunteers of the MDA Make-a-Wish-Ambulance initiative was held last week in Modi’in, to conclude another year of activity.
Throughout 2017, MDA EMTs and paramedics fulfilled the wishes of 184 patients, and overall, since the beginning of the imitative in 2009, MDA’s Make-a-Wish-Ambulance has reached 900 patients and their families. These wishes included Bar Mitzva celebrations at the Kosel, trips, concerts, and even things that seem trivial like going to the beach or dining at a restaurant with family. Over the years, the amount of requests to MDA has increased, and every week, MDA fulfills four wishes on average. During the evening, MDA Director-General, Eli Bin, said that in light of the importance of this project, MDA will inaugurate two additional ambulances that would allow the organization to significantly expand its activity.
The Make a Wish Ambulance is part of a treatment notion that enables patients to immerse in society, strive to fulfill their wish and gain hope and will to battle their illness. The experience of having wishes come true is a significant and important component to bettering the mood of the terminally ill on their toughest days, and allowing them to forget about their pain and suffering. During the ceremony, Mali Tziziashvili, mother of Dor, who’s wish came true on one of his last few days, and despite his medical state, arrived at the cinema with MDA volunteers to watch “Wonder Woman”. Mali talked to the crowd about the experience and how much it meant to Dor. Afterwards, Dor’s doctor, Dror Levine, from Ichilov Hospital, came on stage to explain about the medical aspect of fulfilling wishes of patients.
Tomer Bar Levi, a representative on behalf of the volunteers, said: “All of you, in my eyes, are angels that come down from heaven to do well in the world for a few hours. You are working people, parents, men and women, Jews and Arabs, religious and seculars, who focus on this mission only to do good for others.”
MDA paramedic, Yonat Daskal, who is in charge of MDA’s Make a Wish ambulance, was surprised when she was promoted by MDA Director-General, Eli Bin, for her work over the past four years, and her dedication to making the initiative an enjoyable experience for patients and their families. Yonat thanked the volunteers and said “We are lucky to be able to make people’s wishes come true, we cannot take that for granted. I hope we will continue to fulfill many more dreams together.” Attorney Yoram Sagi Zacks, Chairman of the National Council for Volunteering: “You make the impossible, possible. In your actions, your grace, and your enlistment to the benefit of Israeli society. MDA is an organization that is seeded within Israeli society, and the Make a Wish Ambulance is an inseparable part of that.”
MDA Chief Bin concluded: “The Make a Wish Ambulance initiative enables those who are terminally ill to enjoy, even for a few hours, happy, normal experiences, that healthy people take for granted. We are all here for one purpose, to do good for those who don’t have it so good. I think your sense of compassion is what made you become MDA personnel. Thanks to you, we are able to answer to any request, any wish, at any place and any time, and to relief the pain of patients and their families. We intend on expanding this blessed project and by the end of 2018, MDA is set to receive two additional ambulances. We will then have a total of three ambulances for this purpose along, so we can reach more patients and fulfill more wishes.”
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem/Photos: MDA Spokesman Unit)
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One Response
Would Yeshiva World please remove this article. The fact that this article would praise that one of the last things that a terminally-ill Jewish boy would see in This World is a non-Kosher movie via the MDA, to have this boy’s eyes see Tumah and bring the Tumah with him to the Next World, is very upsetting.