Volunteer Emergency Telephone Line Provides Much-Needed Company

A year and a half ago JDC in Moscow informed the Russian Jewish community that it was searching for new and innovative projects. People could submit projects through applications made available and then some would be given the opportunity to transform their ideas into realities. Many applications were submitted, and after reviewing them JDC decided to fund several of the projects. One such project was the Volunteer Emergency Telephone Line, proposed by Jacob. Jacob had a 3-year experience working at a similar service in Israel, and his dream was to create a comparable support line for the Jews of Moscow; many of who have no current form of communicative assistance.

Once this project was approved, the Volunteer Emergency Telephone Line was advertised in the community Jewish newspaper searching for volunteers to participate in a 3-month training seminar. Over 30 people answered the add and what this proved was that voluntarism had not vanished in Russia, even after 70 years of Soviet Regime when this idea was greatly exploited.

The 30 volunteers were trained in how to handle emergency telephone calls and how to speak with people who sadly have no one else to talk to about their problems. After completing their training, the volunteers began to field calls. The project was such a success, that JDC extended the grant for the following year. With this money the telephone line was able to expand, and 10 applicants were carefully chosen, and trained.

Jacob says that he is satisfied with the result of their work and happy with what they managed to create. He went on to explain that the main challenge in this work was to teach volunteers how to turn calls with social complaints into calls that dealt with psychological support. They understood that they had reached success when a woman called and for 10 minutes she complained about Hesed services and than said, "Ok, why am I telling you all that? I don’t know, but I feel better now." There have been calls that have lasted for over 3 hours. One elderly man calls them every morning just to feel he has company! The Volunteer Emergency Telephone Line started by Jacob has become a tremendous support for the Jewish community of Moscow.