S.O.S.Program: Emergency Assistance to Needy FSU Jews

Most elderly Jews in the former Soviet Union live in poverty, enduring hunger, cold, or ill health as well as loneliness and isolation. With neither family nor state support to turn to, many must make their irregular state pensions stretch to cover the cost of food, rent, medicines and fuel. For too many, "stretching" can mean deciding to go without one of these crucial life-sustaining items.

To alleviate this dire need, JDC provides basic relief services including food, medicines and homecare services to a quarter million Jewish elderly. In many cases, the needs of these elderly extend beyond these services that JDC routinely provides. It became clear that an additional element to JDC's relief efforts was required. The S.O.S. Emergency One-Time Assistance program was the result.

S.O.S. enables JDC to respond on a case-by-case basis to calls for emergency aid that fall beyond the JDC-supported local Hesed welfare center's basic assistance. Such assistance is vital for Jews whose pensions are inadequate for routine expenses: when faced with the need for a lifesaving operation or for a new heater to alleviate bitter cold, for example, S.O.S. is their only hope. The S.O.S. program also provides financial support to Jewish elderly in dire need to cover:

• Medical services, such as treatments, medical tests, surgery, hospitalization, dentures, prostheses, hearing aids and glasses.
• Home repairs, such as repair of leaking roofs and crumbling walls.
• Purchase and repair of household appliances, such as stoves, refrigerators, and furniture.
• Jewish burial services.

In keeping with JDC's ongoing effort to empower local Jewish communities, the application process and distribution of S.O.S. funds are designed to actively involve local Jewish communities in the FSU. Every Hesed established an "Emergency and Special Needs" Fund Committee composed of representatives from the Hesed, JDC and other community organizations. These committees formulate objective criteria for selecting grant recipients, then meet regularly to review urgent cases and to determine how best to meet the clients' needs. Within 48 hours of the committee's decision, assistance is provided, in the form of services or products.

Tragically, as word gets out, there are more cries for help, including a growing number of calls for emergency assistance for children and their families. As long as it is able, JDC will continue its efforts to ease the discomfort and despair of disease and poverty among elderly Jews. Through a newly created S.O.S. Children's Fund, JDC is now seeking to provide hope for the future of impoverished Jewish children and their families as well.