Helping people in need with MDA
ONE of the special things about working for Magen David Adom (MDA) is the opportunity to help people all over the world, paramedic Ravit Martinez says.
ONE of the special things about working for Magen David Adom (MDA) is the opportunity to help people all over the world, paramedic Ravit Martinez says.
Martinez, along with Ido Golan-Gutin from the organisation’s International Desk, will address MDA NSW’s major function on Sunday, July 12.
Topics she will discuss include her involvement in MDA’s humanitarian mission to Nepal following the earthquake in April, and treating Palestinian children during Operation Protective Edge.
She told The AJN that it was fulfilling to help people in the wake of the earthquake and see “how a small organisation like MDA can reach places like Nepal and help treat people”.
“We were the first team over there from all over the world and they opened their arms and just greeted us, and it was amazing to see the love and the gratitude that they felt for us,” she said.
“We travelled with the uniform, with the Magen David, and they really treated us nicely.”
Martinez lives on Kibbutz Erez, located only one kilometre from Gaza.
“In a quiet time, it’s really nice,” she said. “But during war … you have tanks and soldiers inside the kibbutz, it’s not so easy. Once a week, twice a week we have an alarm and we have rockets.”
She said serving during the conflict between Israel and Hamas last year was “quite a challenging time”.
“My children were at my mother’s house in the north and I didn’t see them for two weeks, and I treated the Palestinians from Erez Crossing and we took them to hospitals inside Israel,” she said.“And every day it was under fire.
“It’s a challenge, but it helped me to stay a human being – to stay with my emotions, and without any hate just to treat people and help people because they are people.”
She said most of the Palestinian patients were friendly, “but some still hate us”.
“But if from childhood you are taught to hate, it’s not so easy to take it out and to change it,” she said. “So I’m trying to teach my children not to be hateful or resentful.”
And she said while some cases generally are harder than others, “you have to disconnect yourself emotionally”.
“You have to cut yourself out of this scenario and just automatically work … after the scenario is over I manage to think and feel what happened, and I have to process it.”
For more information on MDA’s major function, visit www.magendavidadom.org.au.
GARETH NARUNSKY
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