Polish volunteer dodges rockets for MDA in Ashkelon

21-year-old Dominique Borovska is taking part in an MDA program for foreign volunteers.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
Dominique Borovska 248.88 (photo credit: MDA)
Dominique Borovska 248.88
(photo credit: MDA)
A 21-year-old woman from Warsaw, Poland is volunteering at Magen David Adom's first aid and ambulance station in Ashkelon, which has already been hit by several rockets and missiles. Dominique Borovska said her parents were worried "but know I am a responsible girl and that the place where I am working is concerned about my safety." Borovska's parents were very frightened when viewing Polish news reports of the terror attacks from Gaza on Israel and specifically on Ashkelon. But she explained that the media were not realistically depicting the situation. A graduate of a first-aid course in the Polish Red Cross, Borovska took a refresher course at MDA before joining the ambulance staff. She is also a flute player and music student at Warsaw's conservatory and has a twin sister who is a ballet dancer. She now resides in Ashkelon's absorption center along with four other young people who are taking part in an MDA program for foreign volunteers named in memory of Yochat Porat, who in 2002 was one of 10 soldiers and civilians killed when a gunman opened fire at a military roadblock north of Ofra in Samaria. Borovska says she would like to volunteer in Ashkelon for another few months and take an advanced MDA paramedic course. Two years ago, she was a volunteer at Kibbutz Ramat Rahel, just outside Jerusalem, when "it was so peaceful and boring. It's hard to believe that now I'm in Ashkelon, which is a target of Hamas missiles and rockets." Only on Monday was she in a team called when a young man was killed at a building site and another person was lightly injured from shrapnel. "It's an amazing feeling," she said on Tuesday, "to take part in MDA's mission to save lives."