After months of hard work, the Yad Tamar organization, which provides a community aid and assistance package for cancer patients and their families, has created a beta version of a cutting edge app that's expected to dramatically change the way families deal with life-threatening illnesses and critical challenges.
The new app assists a family in crisis management, identifying and prioritizing the many tasks that land on them upon learning of a life-threatening illness. It enables the extended family and the close community to lend a hand and help in a more effective way; whether in daily chores, medicine procurement, and carpooling to classes and schools and in other tasks such as help with shopping, etc.
For its contribution to the world of volunteering with this innovative development, the organization received a grant of ILS 350,000 earlier this week, on behalf of "Exemplary State" from the social-Israeli initiative "Or Movement", which promotes reality-changing initiatives contributing to all social sectors.
The organization's 1,300 volunteers who are spread across 30 locations around the country, will be able to connect to the app from anywhere and instantly help families, at any given time. The organization added: "We intend to ease the heavy burden that lies on the families whose loved ones are ill or face a severe crisis, requiring from them unique strength and effort." Social psychologist Pinchas Rosenfeld, along with Jonathan Weinberg, a social entrepreneur named the app ‘Enola’ - (‘Alone’ backwards).
Rosenfeld notes that "the app is able to create from a series of varying algorithms, a personal community for each family tailor made to its individual situation and to its own needs. The utilization of AI allows the bot to diagnose and prioritize the family’s tasks. All you need to do in order to connect is push a button: the app’s interface is friendly and welcoming to all ages - from ages 8 and on, including to an 85-year-old who’s considers himself to be ‘technologically challenged’.
Yad Tamar's training teams come from various fields and train dozens of communities in different neighborhoods and localities throughout the country according to the "aid network" model. This model enables volunteers and the close community to react immediately to any family need, as dealing with a crisis is very time consuming. Thus, as mentioned, daily trivial tasks such as cleaning the house, cooking lunch, paying bills or carpooling to classes and schools become a very complex challenge. The parents' limited ability to cope with all the tasks, leads the family to an ongoing crisis that makes it very difficult for them to continue leading a normal life with a routine agenda.
Yad-Tamar chairman Michi Wassertel, who founded the Yad Tamar organization 12 years ago in memory of his sister Tamar, who passed away from cancer: In the upcoming months, in coordination with "Exemplary State", our representatives will be visiting different neighborhoods across the country, and with the cooperation of the many volunteers, we will shape the next generation of community support. We have humanized the friendly technology, a Jewish and Israeli message. We believe this message should reach all communities and groups in Israel, and in the future, around the world. "