Asmahan Abu-Yeheya, 42, from Gan Yavne, has been a volunteer for Magen David Adom for 16 years. Over the years, Asmahan had six children on her own—she is a single mother (her youngest is 10), and between one maternity leave and another, she continued to volunteer at MDA as an EMT and ambulance driver.
Asmahan is a certified preschool teacher, and at the same time also works as a medical secretary at an orthopedic clinic, and as a volunteer operations officer for the Gan Yavne Rescue Unit.
“I get support from the kids,” Asmahan said, “If I’m in a bad mood, they tell me to go to a MDA shift because they know it will do me good. Doing and giving give me a lot of satisfaction, and I feel at any given moment that I am part of the warm and supportive MDA family.
“When I treat an older woman, I treat her like she is my grandmother,” Asmahan says. “Every time I think about the person in the ambulance when he is in pain and scared, and sometimes I am the only person they have, my job is first and foremost to give him the best medical care, but I believe it is very important that I be both human and caring. ”
In recent months, Asmahan has taken an active part in the forefront of the battle against the coronavirus. She received training to obtain samples from suspected patients, and obtained samples in the homes of patients in the Gan Yavne and Ashdod area, in the “Drive and Test” complex in Ashdod, and in area nursing homes.
“I’ve taken a lot of samples, but it was important not to be indifferent to any of the patients,” Asmahan said. “I remember going to sample a tourist who was in isolation at a hotel in Ashdod, and I was told he had a birthday. I sang Happy Birthday to him and he was very touched.”
“When I arrive dressed in a protective suit in homes that have children, I tell them that I’m not a monster, and do everything I can to calm them down. The activity around the coronavirus crisis is vast and sometimes not easy, but I know I am part of something big, and I volunteer at an organization that adapts to the changes in the country with the help of people like myself and other volunteers,” she said.
