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Wanted: American Volunteer Emergency Workers for Israel

(Washington Jewish Week) Suzanne Pollak - Three Israelis from the nonprofit EVP, Emergency Volunteers Project, visited the Washington area Dec. 5 and 6 to shore up volunteers, training facilities and money as part of its goal to have 2,000 American firefighters, rescue workers and other medical personnel trained and ready to deploy to Israel in the event of a crisis. In a country of roughly 7.5 million people, there are only 900 active firefighters. In an emergency, "if we can bring in 400 or 500 extra firefighters, it's a real help," said Gary Schiff, who is helping coordinate the American end of these efforts. EVP officials are traveling the country, signing up volunteers who are already trained in the needed skills so they must only be trained to adapt to Israeli methods. These people must be able to deploy to Israel at a moment's notice. So far, close to 500 Americans have been trained in Texas, Florida and New York. EVP plans to train five types of volunteers separately: firefighters, medical personnel, bomb shelter workers, infrastructure workers who can rescue victims in collapsed buildings, and food distributors.
2012-12-14 00:00:00
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