Physical Health Israel Project #12465

Bring Health Care to 4000 Needy People in Israel

by YEDID: The Association for Community Empowerment

Project Report | Oct 28, 2014
Progress Report on YEDID's Mobile Center

By Hadas Tayeb | Resource Development Coordinator

Getting ready for another day of change making!

Sara is in her early 40s. The single mother of two grown children - one of whom is a soldier - Sara has struggled to make ends meet for most of her adult life; she has a disability which prevents her from finding stable employment, and subsists entirely off of a monthly NIS 2600 ($680) disability benefit. Over the past year, Sara has been disconnected from her supply of natural gas. The reason? She had an outstanding debt of NIS 700 ($185) to the gas company. Perpetually perched on the edge of poverty, Sara wasn't able to pay the debt in full, let alone find the money for the gas line reattachment fee. With nowhere to cook for herself, Sara turned to cheap junk food alternatives, and her health rapidly deteriorated.

Over the course of the year, Sara repeatedly petitioned the Amisragas gas company, requesting that her debt be spread out over a number of installments, and that she be allowed to pay with vouchers, as she had no credit card or checkbook with which to make payments. Her request was repeatedly denied, and Sara began to lose hope. A chance meeting with an acquaintance at the supermarket led her to YEDID. After hearing Sara's story, a Mobile Center volunteer immediately contacted the head office of Amisragas. The volunteer submitted a number of documents detailing Sara's economic predicament, and demanded that Sara's request for instaled payments be accepted. Within days of receiving the volunteer's letter, the head office approved Sara's request. She was a given vouchers to use on the 28th of each month to pay for gas, and was reconnected to the gas line for free. Thanks to YEDID, Sara can go back to cooking for herself and get her health back on track.

The goal of YEDID's Mobile Citizen Rights and Health Center is to empower and strengthen residents like Sara of Israel's socioeconomic and geographic peripheries in the areas of health and social rights. The Center's objectives are to help clients navigate the national health system; to provide preventative medical services; and to supply information about legal rights and social benefits in the area of health care and other areas (such as housing and National Insurance, to name just two).

From the beginning of August 2014 through the beginning of November 2014, the Mobile Center provided 144 clients with rights counseling. The most prevalent subjects for which people turned to the center for non-health related issues during this period were matters related to debt and repossessions (28%), issues concerning public housing and mortgages (18%), and problems in accessing benefits and rights from the National Insurance Institute (Social Security) (10%). Clients served included immigrants and veteran Israelis, Arabs and Jews.

The Mobile Center's plans for the coming months are to increase the number of Health Days it runs for senior citizens age 60 and up, to recruit more volunteers with specific skills such as fluency in Arabic and Russian, and professional experience in relevant fields. Thanks to a generous donation, we will soon be able to hire an additonal part-time case manager for the Mobile Center. This will allow the center's staff and volunteers to more efficiently handle the packed caseload, especially on days in which the center both receives clients and simultaneously runs health days. Checking with Irina if this came to pass yet.

On behalf of YEDID's staff, volunteers, and clients, I thank our supporters for their partnership. The immediate and essential assistance that the center provides to individuals across the country could never happen without your help. Thank you so much!

Back to all project reports

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.