Yad Sarah, Israel’s leading non-governmental health-care and social-services organization, recently opened the doors to its new five-story, state-of-the-art branch in Ashdod.
With its nearly 100 volunteers, it will serve as a regional service hub for the city and surrounding communities of southern Israel. It is expected to aid tens of thousands of individuals a year.
The branch’s opening represents the latest step in the organization’s nationwide expansion and to meet rising local demand in the south alongside Ashdod’s growth. This comes after more than 50 years of extensive Yad Sarah activity in Israel’s fifth-largest city.
The facility replaces the organization’s previous main branch in the city, offering an expanded array of compassionate home and health-care services. These include a comprehensive rehabilitation center, advanced medical-equipment lending and specialized emotional support programs.
Designed to meet the community’s ongoing needs at all times, the new center houses a protected underground floor that can operate during emergencies, such as war or natural disaster. As such, the site can serve as both an emergency medical hub and a distribution center for medical equipment lending, such as at-home oxygen supplies.
Within walking distance to the city’s main hospital, Assuta Ashdod University Hospital, the branch’s upper floor offers spacious hospitality suites for families of patients, also available for occupancy on Shabbats and holidays. These units are part of Yad Sarah’s broader hospitality network in Jerusalem, Beersheva and Ra’anana.
The new branch offers a wide range of innovative services, including:
- Spacious medical equipment lending and repair centers
- Advanced day rehabilitation center and a multipurpose therapeutic garden
- Exhibition and guidance center for at-home mobility and assistive health-care equipment
- “Yad Riva”: Pro-bono legal aid for the elderly
- “Yad Latomech”: Support for family caregivers of loved ones with neurodegenerative disease or prolonged illness
- “Life Stories”: Writing and publishing biographies for the elderly
- Hospitality suites for the families of patients hospitalized nearby
- Mobile dental services offering at-home treatments
- Emergency call center and alert device lending
- “Nechoniot”: Wheelchair-accessible vans for personalized door-to-door transportation
- Home hospitalization unit and equipment setup at a patient’s house
- Play center for children with special needs
“The opening of this new branch marks a significant milestone for Yad Sarah and for the people of southern Israel, coming at a time when the need for short- and long-term rehabilitation, outpatient and emotional support is greater than ever,” said CEO Moshe Cohen.
“We are deeply grateful to the generous donors whose contributions totaling NIS 70 million [approximately $20 million] made this possible, and to Ashdod Mayor Dr. Yehiel Lasri for championing this project from the start,” he continued. “Together, we look forward to uplifting the community, in the spirit of mutual responsibility, with the most advanced and compassionate care.”
Yad Sarah, the leading volunteer-staffed organization in Israel, provides a vital array of compassionate health and home-care services for people of all ages. Founded in 1976, Yad Sarah has 126 branches throughout Israel staffed by more than 7,000 volunteers. Although the organization is best known for its extensive lending service for medical equipment, its volunteers also drive wheelchair-accessible vans, reach out to the homebound, advocate for the elderly at risk for abuse, provide in-home geriatric dental care, staff its play center and more.