Walkers to raise money for Alzheimer’s care

Melabev is preparing to raise money in a two-day hike for its care of people with Alzheimer’s disease.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
Updated: SEPTEMBER 10, 2017 18:50
golan heights 300 (photo credit: Joe Yudin)
golan heights 300
(photo credit: Joe Yudin)
Melabev is preparing to raise money in a two-day hike for its care of people with Alzheimer’s disease.
The 2011 Melabev Walkathon will be held on the Golan on Wednesday and Thursday, after its Tuesday night traditional Moonlight Walk in Mitzpe Yeriho near Jerusalem. Walkers can choose from two routes on the Moonlight Walk – one gentler and the other more challenging. Both paths meet at the end for a barbecue feast.
The Golan hikers will leave from there for the buses carrying them northward. The annual Melabev Walkathon attracts people aged 12 to 82.
Melabev operates 10 daycare centers, a homecare program and home hospice activities (with funding from the UJA-Federation of New York), as well as support groups for family members, an Institute for Studies in Aging and an assessment unit.
All proceeds go toward the development of Beit Melabev (the Center for Alzheimer’s Care), a building in the capital recently acquired by Melabev to consolidate its many services under one roof, and to bring together several of its day care centers. This is cost effective (saving on rents) and efficient for the caregivers.
The organizers included in the walk scenic views on the Golan and historic sites going back to the 13th century. In addition to the minimal registration fee paid by the Golan Hikers, every Walker commits to raise a sum of sponsorship funds.
Melabev was started in 1981 by Prof. Arnold Rosin, formerly director of geriatric medicine at Shaare Zedek Medical Center, and Leah Abramowitz, a veteran geriatric social worker, along with a handful of volunteers.
Of the 700,000 Israelis aged 65 and over, more than 10 percent suffer from this type of dementia. Melabev has developed innovative projects for dealing with memory and cognitive loss – such as the Savion software whose exercises stimulate the remaining skills of the mildly and the moderately cognitively impaired.
For more information, view www.melabev.org/posts/453 or call (02) 655- 5826.