New children's medical center to treat 370,000 Negev youth

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY (TRANSLATED)
The new Saban Children's Medical Center has been officially inaugurated at Beersheba's Soroka hospital, reports www.local.co.il. The new center, designed to service the 370,000 children living in the Negev, was funded by a $5 million donation by media entrepreneur Haim Saban (of "Power Rangers" fame) in a joint venture with the Health Ministry and the Clalit medical fund. According to the report, the new children's medical center contains a cinema and other leisure facilities for hospitalized children as well as new, specially designed and decorated wards, medical equipment and furnishings. Saban, who has donated more than $100 million to hospitals and philanthropic efforts in the US and Israel over the years, said he and his wife Cheryl had long ago decided to tie their destinies to the health and welfare of children. He said the new center would enable the children of the Negev to receive the best possible medical service in the best possible conditions. A hospital spokesman said great emphasis had been placed on creating an educational infrastructure that would enable hospitalized children to continue their education, with a team of 15 teachers and 26 volunteer students to help. The report said the center would be further expanded in 2009 to contain a new children's surgery ward and a 200-seat auditorium for staff academic activities.