Israel Active

Israel’s Yad Sarah organization has distributed emergency beepers to 20,000 people who live alone. Users can contact Yad Sarah, a doctor, police, an ambulance, relatives and others at any time using a button on a bracelet.

Only Israel would consider pensioners, students, minorities and women important enough to have a ministry set-up for them.

Two wounded Syrians were treated at the Baruch Padeh Medical Center in Poriya near Tiberias overnight on Wednesday. One of the injured, a 17-year-old, was treated for shrapnel wounds. And a miracle – CNN praises Israel’s treatment of wounded Syrians (although the sound quality is poor).

Israel’s RWL Water has built a major water treatment facility in Colombia. RWL treats the 86,000 cubic meters of water a day produced during extraction of oil in Campo Rubiales, so that it reaches a level suitable for irrigation.

A group of leaders in Miami’s budding start-up community recently visited Israel. Their experiences taught them (a) have a can-do attitude; (b) get institutional support; (c) build a network; (d) embrace failure; (e) play the long game; (f) find strength in diversity (g) open doors.

So much has happened in Nepal. A new 7.4 magnitude earthquake hit, with Israelis still on the scene. IsraAID is working in one of the remote devastated regions. A Nepalese man, who had previously worked in Israel, thanks Israel (in Hebrew) for saving his mother. And Israeli medical clowns have been improving recovery times for injured Nepalese children.

Israeli doctors saved the life of a 4-year-old girl from Gaza after Hamas finally gave permission for her to be treated in Israel. In Gaza, Yara had been run over by a truck. Local Gaza doctors amputated Yara’s leg but allowed necrosis to set in. Israeli doctors treated the injury and fitted a prosthetic leg.

I was researching something completely different when I discovered the Alon Center in Kibbutz Alonim. It caters for the needs of teenagers of normal intelligence with emotional and/or behavioral issues who have been unable to successfully integrate into the regular school system.

Meski Shibru is an Israeli actress and vocalist. She immigrated to Israel from Ethiopia at the age of 16.

At the Israeli Army officers’ training base, the members of Team 12 includes a Bedouin Muslim, an Ethiopian, a soldier who is both Muslim and Jewish, plus rural and city dwellers from both sides of the Green Line. And one Arab is successfully promoting the IDF to the Arab world.