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Amazing Dvir
Dvir Gatt
In his second year of medical studies at the Joyce and Irving Goldman Medical School, Dvir Gatt volunteers at “Beit Hagalgalim” (House of Wheels), where he counsels groups of young adults with disabilities. An honors student, Dvir helps them learn how to live independently, helps run workshops in local high-schools to prevent sexual assault on teenagers, and manages the local branch of the “Shechen Tov” (Good Neighbor”) organization, that runs volunteer activities for disabled people, schizophrenics, mentally challenged children and others.
The Lubner Prize lets Dvir do what he really loves: helping others. Says Dvir: “I think most Israeli students, and especially those who come to study at BGU, care about people and have a heightened social consciousness. So many people here in Beer-Sheva desperately need our help. The problem is that as students, we are always stressed for time. When donors support us, they let us do things that are meaningful, in addition to studying. The aid I received freed up my schedule so I could invest my time in things I believe in, instead of just working part-time jobs to pay off the rent. To me, it just feels right to ’give back‘, so I can be a better person, and eventually, a better doctor.”
Amazing Liad
Liad Yosef, a fourth-year student at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, volunteers at a “bereavement follow-up” program. Part of Ma’agan, a Community Cancer Care Center for cancer patients and their families supported by Edy and Sol Freedman of NYC. Liad chose to reach out to cancer patients “because cancer is something that has affected people close to me. This is also why I decided to study biomedical engineering: to eventually develop treatments to improve the quality of life for cancer patients and increase their chances for recovery.”
After participating in a training program to receive medical and psychological instruction, Liad was assigned a family with seven children that had turned to Ma’agan for support. The father was a terminal cancer patient and passed away two months later. Liad then got actively involved in the family’s lives and helped them weather the crises.
“We made an immediate connection”’ says Liad, “and now they consider me part of the family. They live in a very underprivileged neighborhood in Beer-Sheva and suffer from great economic difficulties. I visit them once a week, and in between meetings we speak on the phone. I spend a lot of time talking with the mother, who was very depressed at first. I helped her find a better job, and she is now taking a hairdressing and manicure course run by government employment offices. I also got her to join a support group for widows held at Ma’agan. One of the daughters wanted to leave home, because of the family’s financial situation, but I managed to convince her to stay and help out. Another time, I managed to convince one of the sons to return to the army after he had fled. I used my personal contacts as a past military officer to get him a work permit so he could help support the family while continuing to do his army service.”
Liad now volunteers as a counselor at the Ma’agan day camp for kids and will soon be assigned a new family. To him, it just seems natural. “I’ve been volunteering ever since I was ten. I guess you could say it’s a way of life for me. My work at Ma’agan is just a natural continuation of what I’ve always done and hope to always continue doing.”
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