Yad Sarah
 |
|
| Formation | 1976 |
|---|---|
| Type | Gemach |
| Legal status | Non-profit |
| Purpose | Loans of medical and rehabilitative equipment and other services for homebound and elderly |
| Headquarters | Jerusalem, Israel |
| Location |
|
|
Region served
|
Israel |
|
Official language
|
Hebrew |
|
President/Founder
|
Uri Lupolianski |
| Affiliations | United Nations Department of Public Relations |
|
Budget
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USD$23 million |
|
Staff
|
150 |
|
Volunteers
|
6,000 |
| Website | yadsarah.org |
| Remarks | Awarded 1994 Israel Prize Granted special advisory status to the United Nations Economic and Social Council |
Yad Sarah (Hebrew: יד שרה) is the largest national volunteer organization in Israel. Employing over 6,000 volunteers, with a salaried staff of 150, Yad Sarah serves over 350,000 clients each year. It is best known for its free loans of over 244,000 pieces of medical and rehabilitative home-care equipment annually, enabling sick, disabled, elderly and recuperating patients to live at home. This saves the country's economy an estimated $320 million in hospital fees and long-term care costs each year.
According to an independent survey, one out of every two Israeli families has been helped by Yad Sarah. The organization serves Jews, Christians, Muslims and Druze, as well as tourists with disabilities. Its menu of free or nominal-fee services include lending of medical and rehabilitative equipment, oxygen service, wheelchair transportation, national emergency alarm system, services for the homebound, legal aid for the elderly, geriatric dentistry, day rehabilitation centers, a play center for special needs children, and an education and recreation club for retirees. Yad Sarah receives no government funding, but relies on donations to meet its $23 million operating budget. It exports its expertise to developing countries and has established similar models in various countries. Yad Sarah is a recipient of the Israel Prize and has been awarded advisory status to the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
Yad Sarah started in the 1970s as a gemach (free-loan service) in the home of Rabbi Uri Lupolianski, who later served as mayor of Jerusalem from 2003 to 2008. At that time, Lupolianski was a high school teacher with a young family and one of his children needed a vaporizer during the winter, so his wife borrowed one from a neighbor. Upon hearing that such short-term-use items were hard to obtain, Lupolianski decided to start his own gemach by buying a few vaporizers to lend to others. People who heard about his gemach began dropping off other items which are also used for a short time, such as crutches, walkers and wheelchairs. With seed money from his father, Yaakov Lupolianski, and guidance from Kalman Mann, director general of Hadassah Medical Center, Lupolianski incorporated his gemach into a nationwide non-profit in 1976. Lupolianski named the organization Yad Sarah (Hebrew for "Memorial to Sarah") in memory of his grandmother, Sarah, who had died in the Holocaust. Yad Sarah raises 92% of its operating budget from donations. The organization does not receive any government assistance. Yad Sarah has helped establish equipment-lending centers and repair workshops in Angola,Cameroon,El Salvador, Russia,South Africa, and Jordan.
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