JDC Aids Israel Fire Evacuees

Within 24 hours of the fire crisis in Northern Israel, JDC activated its Emergency Response Team in the region to help ensure the swift evacuation of elderly, disabled, and youth at risk. JDC mobilized its network of Israeli youth volunteers to work with local municipalities to provide additional support in the blaze-affected area. JDC also provided basic needs and emotional support to vulnerable evacuees.

JDC’s Emergency Response System—developed during the second intifada and the Second Lebanon War—helped to ensure that critical assistance was – and continues to be -- delivered.

In the days that followed, youth volunteers from JDC Young Adult Centers helped evacuate local residents—the elderly, disabled and at-risk families—in Tirat HaCarmel and Kiryat Yam and helped find alternative accommodations for them. Mattresses, food and basic needs were distributed. JDC Supportive Communities for the Disabled in Haifa called and visited all local clients and prepared them for possible evacuation.

JDC Supportive Communities in Tirat HaCarmel and Haifa conducted house-to-house outreach in neighborhoods with high concentrations of Ethiopian and Russian immigrants, and brought them to community centers for warm meals, therapeutic assistance and safe accommodations.