By Miri Shvimmer
The first night I arrived here (last Thursday), together with another 40 EMS personnel, I looked around one of the refugee centers where I was stationed to see who needed help. I found a woman sitting quietly on the side, so I came over to her to see if she needed anything and to ask how she was doing. With a mix of English, Russian, and hand gestures, we communicated. I understood she had been there for the past three days with her 12-year-old daughter who has special needs. I noticed that she looked pale and malnourished and when I asked her if she had been eating the food we had for them, she told me that she hadn’t really, only small amounts of very light foods. She keeps kosher, so a lot of the foods she wasn’t willing to eat because of those restrictions. I told her that the food was kosher, contrary to what she had thought, as we had brought it from Israel special for the Jewish refugees. She simply refused to eat because she didn’t want to bother anyone or be a burden on the volunteers. She was very adamant about it and verbalized that she wasn’t interested, and she felt fine. It took a long time until I was finally able to gain her trust and convince her to eat.
We brought over food for both her and her daughter and she was so happy. Even just doing her job as a mother once again, caring for her child and asking what she would like to eat, I was able to finally see her happy and content which made me happy in turn. I’m so glad we were able to make her feel comfortable and show her that it’s okay to accept the help we are offering them. It’s what we came here to do and it’s in our best interests that the refugees are as happy as they can be during this sad time.
The job of the volunteers from the Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Unit on this mission is really important for many reasons, one of which is to help people like this. The truth is, there are many refugees like this woman. They are proud people and it’s uncomfortable for them to ask for help and have people give them food and other necessities that they have always had and never needed to beg for. I definitely understand where they are coming from. However, it’s really heartbreaking because we don’t want them to feel this way at all. We are here to help with anything and we want everyone to feel comfortable to accept the help and ask for what they need even small or seemingly silly requests. For example, one of the refugees has skin sensitivity and asked for a different shampoo because of that and I was overjoyed to bring her just that.
We are here to help and brought supplies to give them out. And it’s not coming from a place of charity and mercy and feeling bad for the refugees, not at all. We feel like one of them, we are in this together. We are all brothers and sisters.
Another story where I was fortunate enough to help some of the refugees occurred when 2 people, a mother, and her son, were injured due to a bomb that exploded near them inside Ukraine. The son attained a spinal cord injury and the mother injured her leg, but thankfully they are being taken care of and are recovering well. They were over the Ukrainian border, so we went to visit them and let them know that we were there for them. We made sure that they were properly treated and spoke with them for around 30 minutes to an hour to see how they were feeling and to bring them anything they needed. Here too, both my medical and my psychotrauma and crisis response training were useful to help them heal emotionally.
The last story I would like to share is of a woman I treated in our clinic who sustained a broken leg. She was telling me that she had come by herself and was making her way to Israel to settle there. She is an older woman and the daughter of Holocaust survivors who also fled from their homes to save themselves, and now that it feels like history is repeating itself, they were hesitant to run away again. They consulted with their Rabbi who assured them that they will be fine and don’t need to leave their home. But the daughter had different plans. It was hard for her to leave her parents, and she was crying because she missed them. As I treated her leg injury, I hugged her tightly and gave her the support she needed so desperately at that moment.
After a few minutes, the woman began to calm down and her excitement at the prospect of immigrating to Israel took over. She was so amazed by our delegation and the fact that the Jewish people are so willing to help. Many others are excited to make Aliyah as well. They are all proud of the Jewish nation and our country and proud to be Jewish. It is so inspiring to witness this, especially after all that they have been through.
I feel fortunate that I am here, on the side of giving, and that I can help and give much-needed love and support to the refugees as well as utilize my medical expertise to treat those who come across the border with injuries. I feel so passionate about this mission because I am doing exactly what I would have wanted people to do for my grandparents who are Holocaust survivors, also from here. I think each of the volunteers is doing incredible work and it just blows my mind how much is being done. Volunteers are cooking, providing medical care, organizing flights, humanitarian aid, equipment, and logistics, enough for an army. I’m only doing a small part of it all, helping where and with whom I can. I am so proud to be part of this amazing delegation and this amazing organization.
