As the IDF carries out Operation Protective Edge, United Hatzalah, Israel’s fastest emergency response service, have placed their 2,300 volunteers on high alert across the country – including their 400 volunteers based in target zones in Southern Israel. The volunteers are working 24/7 to aid the civilians of Israeli population centers already being targeted by thousands of Hamas missiles, while bracing themselves for a lengthy and bitter battle to save lives throughout Israel from terror attacks, rioting and rockets. With longer range missiles predicted to reach Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in the oncoming weeks, the home front is fast becoming the front line.
The fully-trained emergency responders are on call to administer urgent care within minutes, putting their daily routines on hold to respond to incidents, which they are notified of via mobile-alerts. The organization continues to provide those in need with medical aid within three minutes of an emergency call, by way of their ambucycles and patented LifeCompass GPS technology. As with the Operation Pillar of Defence, United Hatzalah plan to place volunteers in communities which lack medical professionals. Despite working under fire, United Hatzalah has reported a huge shortage in helmets and bullet proof vests, essential for the volunteers to continue with their life-saving work. Accordingly, they have launched an emergency campaign to raise the funds needed to purchase an additional 100 protective kits, priced at $1400 each.
In the meantime, the ongoing unrest within Israel has seen 100,000 people download United Hatzalah’s SOS smartphone app from sos.nowforce.com, designed to prevent future abductions. Launched just days after news of the abductions emerged, SOS subscribers can alert United Hatzalah that they are in distress with one subtle swipe of the finger, and give the security forces permission to track their exact location using patented GPS technology. Based on United Hatzalah’s Irving and Cherna Moskowitz LifeCompass system, the app was developed by NowForce, and allows for a discrete method to call for help. In addition to tracking the user via the smartphone, the system contacts any family or friends that are pre-programmed into the system during registration.
. “Our main mission at United Hatzalah is to get to medical emergencies within three minutes all over the country,” says United Hatzalah’s president and founder Eli Beer. “That includes the citizens of the highly targeted South, and victims of terror attacks and riots. The ongoing crisis means that we desperately need to provide our volunteers with protective vests, so that they can continue to save lives without endangering their own.”
United Hatzalah is Israel’s first and largest fully-volunteer emergency rapid response service. With a fleet of over 300 ambucycles, United Hatzalah’s 2,300 volunteers respond to nearby emergencies from mobile-alerts and are able to arrive first on site to administer urgent care within minutes from the initial call of distress – bridging the gap between emergency and ambulance arrival. United Hatzalah is a fully non-profit organization that relies solely on the generous gifts of supporters worldwide; all emergency medical treatment is administered by fully trained volunteers that do not charge for their life saving service.
{Matzav.com Israel News Bureau}
send donations to them – someone should post the address in Israel where to send $$$