Yad Sarah emergency beepers free for Holocaust survivors
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
Holocaust survivors are entitled to get emergency beepers free from the Yad Sarah organization, it was announced on Friday.Volunteers will come to the homes of those who request a beeper and install the device, which includes a sensor that informs those on duty at its Jerusalem headquarters if a person has fallen – even if he or she had not pressed the button.Survivors who are ill, lonely and elderly can thus be monitored 24 hours a day and get immediate help from rescue services when needed – an ambulance, policy, a doctor, a relative, the fire service, a neighbor or others.Yad Sarah director-general Moshe Cohen said that the recent State Comptroller’s Report on the state’s failure to adequately help Holocaust survivors was not surprising, as this comes up again and again. “These people built the country, [after having] suffered in unthinkable ways. As a Jewish society, we must not be ungrateful. We at Yad Sarah will connect them to the distress center without payment, give them personal security, relieve them of loneliness when they contact us, and send them urgent assistance when necessary.”Many people who are subscribers to the service call not only when they are in trouble, said Cohen, but also when they feel lonely and depressed; the volunteer team is trained to answer each call with compassion.To arrange for installation, call *6444. Those who are not survivors pay a small monthly fee.There is a one-time returnable deposit for the equipment.
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