Ezer Mizion coordinated an unforgettable day for Basa Lulu, a debilitated senior who lives on the third floor of a building with no elevator.
Every time Basa has to leave her home, she requires assistance, and transport is possible only by ambulance. As a result, she goes out very rarely - basically, for medical reasons only. She certainly never dreamed that in her condition, it would be possible to go out one fine day just for the fun of it...
Basa's daughter has been ill with cancer for quite a while, and because of her mobility impairment, Basa has not been able to visit her daughter for a long time. Ezer Mizion runs a project called "Golden Age Dreams Come True." When Basa expressed her fervent wish to visit her daughter's home, Ezer Mizion decided to upgrade the visit into a day that Basa will never forget.
A special ambulance was put at her disposal for the course of this red-letter day, which included a pampering breakfast at the "Greg" restaurant and a moving visit with her daughter Aviva, who suffers from cancer. The ambulance driver who drove her around reported that the woman he brought home at the end of the day was not the same woman he had picked up in the morning. "I am positive that the experience and the optimism that this day gave her will stay with her for a long time."
This unique fun day was part of the "Golden Age Dreams Come True" project of Ezer Mizion, for elderly people who are homebound and mobility impaired. In the course of the past several years, hundreds of wishes "came true", with an average of 70-100 wishes carried out a year.
The most common requests among the seniors are to visit first level relatives whom they have not seen for years because of their severe mobility impairment. Many wishes focus on getting out of the house, sometimes after years of social isolation and being cut off from the outside world - for a trip to the Kotel, to gravesites of tzaddikim or to other sites. Other common requests are to go out to participate in events or attend performances, and more and more. Actualizing these dreams involves complex preparations, including obtaining legal authorization when necessary, getting medical authorization to carry out the request, raising specific contributions to fund expenses involved, depending on the character of the request, arranging transport (usually via Ezer Mizion ambulance and requiring more than one staff member accompanying), maintaining close contact with the social workers, raising awareness of the project among the senior population and linking up the volunteers and various entities involved in carrying out the wishes with representatives of the golden-ager's family. |
