In the last year (5772), the volunteers of Yad Sarah lent
out a total of 270,000 medical items at over 100
branches.
Just this past month the organization bought thousands of
new items to try to match the tremendous spike in demand
that always takes places during the holiday season. Patients
like to spend the festive days with their families, and they
need medical equipment to help them survive.
The single item most lent out is wheelchairs. Over 40,000
were lent out in the past year. Even 2,500 hospital beds
were lent out to enable individuals to spend their days at
home instead of in a hospital.
A total of more than 6,000 volunteers puts in more than a
million hours a year helping people.
Other projects of Yad Sarah include an emergency call
system that is completely free and has over 19,000
subscribers throughout Israel. Over 16,000 calls were
generated by this system.
Yad Sarah volunteers made almost 60,000 visits to homebound
sick people. Volunteer dentists treated over 7,000 elderly
patients at home. Some 28,000 rehabilitation treatments were
given. The volunteers and workshops and machine shops fixed
150,000 pieces of medical equipment.
Yad Sarah provided services worth an estimated NIS 1.5
billion (about $375 million). Its budget is NIS 70 million
($17.5 million) all provided by donations.
