Meet three teachers who traded the school bell for an ambulance siren this summer.
When Meital Avital’s son was an infant, he was sick and had a seizure. With no medical training of her own, Avital felt helpless and called Magen David Adom for help. It was then that the 41-year-old kindergarten teacher from Moshav Argaman decided that if she encountered a situation like that again, she would know what to do. She completed a MDA training course and has been an EMT in Beit She’an for the past year.
While MDA volunteers come from all segments of Israeli society, those who have dedicated their professional lives to the mission-focused work of educating children derive a special sense of satisfaction spending their precious time off helping people in medical need of all ages. Meet three teachers about to embark on a new school year, who chose to spend their summer vacation volunteering in MDA ambulances.
Throughout the school year, Yeshayahu Frieder is a high school physics teacher. In his free time, Frieder volunteers as a senior EMT with MDA.
“Volunteering stems from my love of giving and my sense of mission,” Frieder says.
Frieder, 52, began his MDA career as a youth volunteer. While he has dealt with a few medical incidents at school, most of his volunteering is done after school hours. “When my students see that I volunteer at MDA, I give them the confidence to pursue their dreams. I prove to them that there is time for everything and the sky is the limit.”
Nadine Cohen, 42, from Kerem Reim, has been volunteering as an EMT at the MDA station in Modi’in for the past four years. By day, Cohen teaches at a high school for at-risk girls in Dolev.
Cohen not only reaps contentment from her teaching work, but from her volunteerism as well. “One of my dreams was to volunteer for MDA and I’m happy that I’m fulfilling it and setting goals for myself,” says Cohen. “At the school where I work, we encourage students not only to dream, but to fulfill their dreams. I have professional goals at school and I have goals at MDA that I want to reach. My goal at MDA is to finish my training as an ambulance driver.”
Avital makes time to volunteer with MDA on her days off from teaching kindergarten in Moshav Tomer in the Jordan Vallery. “I try to volunteer on my day off and I do it with great joy,” she says.
“When I enter the kindergarten in the morning, everything else disappears for me, no matter what’s happening in real life, especially now with the war. Seeing the children grow and develop gives me a lot of happiness,” she says.
“I try to convey the values of giving, cooperation, and determination to the children which are values I use in my volunteer work for MDA,” Avital says.
“Everything I do, both as a kindergarten teacher and as a MDA volunteer, is about love.”
