Yad Sarah, which was founded in 1976 by hareidi-religious volunteers in Israel, provides a broad range of medical devices and services free or at very little cost to the sick, disabled or elderly and their families. One of its goals is to allow the elderly to continue living with their families for as long as possible.
Yad Sarah has 6,000 volunteers and assists more than 380,000 each year. Its founder, Uri Lupolianski, is currently mayor of Jerusalem, due in no small part to the appreciation of the city's residents for the work the organization has done.
Yad Sarah has opened branches across Israel over the years, including in Arab villages, but has now begun opening branches overseas as well.
Yad Sarah officials are now in Jordan, working on a plan to help set up a lending center and maintenance facility for medical equipment in a hospital in Amman. The project began when Dr. Muhammed Al-Hadid, president of the Jordanian Red Crescent, heard about Yad Sarah from Israel's embassy in Amman. He then traveled to Israel to see how the organization was run.
"I was really very, very impressed by the work they are doing," Al-Hadid told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. "It was all new to us at the Red Cross and the Red Crescent, and I thought we could copy this in Jordan on a smaller scale."
The Yad Sarah model has been replicated in the former Soviet Union and Africa. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Yad Sarah launched several centers there to assist elderly Jews. The centers have medical equipment lending centers, warehouses and workshops to maintain the equipment. There are now 100 centers across the former Soviet Union.
In Uzbekistan, a community rehabilitation center was set up in Tashkent, which will serve 10,000 children with special needs there.
The organization also helped the African country of Angola set up a medical equipment lending center after 25 years of civil war. There was an overwhelming need for equipment, as land mines had caused thousands to lose limbs.
During a Knesset session honoring the organization, MK Collete Avital (Labor) said that more than half of Israel's citizens had borrowed medical equipment from the organization over the years, or had availed themselves of other Yad Sarah services.