The Matnas Chaim organization led by Rav Yeshayohu Heber seeks to increase the number of people volunteering to donate kidneys to strangers. It reported a 40% increase in such transplants last year, with 127 people donating a kidney to save or drastically improve someone else’s life. To date, the organization has arranged 380 live-donor transplants.
Fifteen percent of the 5,800 people undergoing dialysis in Israel die each year from kidney malfunction. The average waiting time for a cadaver kidney is 5-7 years.
“People are born with two kidneys but only need one to live a healthy life,” Matnas Chaim explained. “All the activities of Matnas Chaim have one goal: to increase the number of kidney transplants in Israel. The organization’s long-term vision is to eliminate the waiting list for kidney transplants in Israel and make Israel the first country in the West where people can get a kidney transplant without any delay.”
{Matzav.com Israel}
