Please Help Odel

(btw, the latest Haveil Havalim is UP at The Israel Situation. Go. Read.)


My friend Naomi is a physical therapist in Jerusalem. Some time ago she sent me the story of one of her patients, Odel, a 13-and-one-half year old girl with a terrible disease, who would be happy if she could just have a special chair, to help her live as normal a life as she is capable of . . .


Naomi sent me a letter in Hebrew, which I translated (with some 'poetic license') below. Please, if you can, do a mitzvah* and help her to help her patient, by commenting on this post (leave me your email address and I will reply) and telling me of your willingness to help.You can also email me and/or Naomi, whose email is in the letter below.

I left out other personal details 'to protect the innocent,' but if you are genuinely willing to help, I will give you some more details, as will Naomi--in our replies.


I am also adding her original letter in Hebrew below, for my Israeli readers who prefer to read it in leshon hakodesh*. She also sent a photo in the letter, and if I can get it formatted right (my Tech Support Hubby is trying to do it), I will add it later.

Odel Kadosh, 13 and a half years old, suffers from a muscle-atrophying disease called Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy. Her disease has worsened, and now Odel cannot walk anymore, nor is she capable of standing, and it is also very difficult for her to raise her arms.

Odel attends a regular school—she is a diligent student and very sociable! As her physiotherapist, I strongly recommend a motorized wheel chair for her, which would be suitable for getting around her home environment in Ramat Bet Shemesh.

This chair can be electrically adjusted to recline (in order to rest her back), and raise the seat so that Odel could reach items at table level, and so that she could see her friends at eye level. This chair is essential in order for Odel to independently function in school, in her neighborhood and in the various social activities in which she participates.

The cost of such a chair is approximately NIS 45,000 ($10,743.40). The Ministry of Health can only fund this under 50%, according to the standard for such funding. Odel’s family is having great difficulty in raising the funds; her mother has stopped working in order to care for Odel and her two little brothers, who are also afflicted with the same syndrome. . .

Please, please help Odel’s family by donating whatever you can for her! Donations (in Israel) are tax-free.

Please email me, Naomi (her physical therapist) at naomigold2@gmail.com.

May you merit mitzvot.


אודל קדוש, בת 13 וחצי, סובלת ממחלת ניוון שרירים מסוג Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy

בשל החמרה במחלתה, אודל אינה מסוגלת עוד ללכת ואף לא לעמוד ומתקשה בהרמת הידיים.

אודל לומדת בבית ספר רגיל, תלמידה חרוצה וחברותית.

כפיזיותרפיסטית שמטפלת בה, אני ממליצה על רכישת כסא גלגלים ממונע, מתאים לנסיעה בסביבת הבית שלה (רמת בית שמש), עם אפשרות לפיקוד חשמלי על הטיית הגו (לצורך מנוחה) וכן הרמת המושב, כדי שתהיה מסוגלת להרים חפצים שמונחים על השולחן וכן שתוכל לראות את חבריה בגובה העיניים.

הכסא קיומי וחיוני לצורך תפקודה העצמאי והבריא בבית הספר, בשכונה ובפעילויות חברתיות שונות, בהן נוטלת חלק.

עלות כסא כזה היא כ-45000 ₪. משרד הבריאות משתתף במימון של פחות מ-50%, לפי אמות המידה שלו.

למשפחה יש קושי לגייס את הכסף, האם הפסיקה לעבוד, כדי לטפל באודל ובשני אחיה הקטנים, הלוקים באותה תסמונת.

אודה לכם על עזרתכם בגיוס תרומות עבורה.

תרומות יתקבלו בברכה לחשבון: 12/532/660978, קו לחיים, עו"ד איתן ארז. תרומה פטורה ממס.

לפרטים נוספים ניתן לפנות אלי במייל Naomigold2@gmail.com

נעמי ג. – פיזיותרפיסטית מוסמכת

*mitzvah - a good deed/commandment

*leshon hakodesh - the Holy Tongue (Hebrew)

Comments

Anonymous said…
Lady-Light, I think you should create a group for this cause on Facebook and invite everyone you know to join. Then ask all of those people to invite their friends. I would bet that the money can be raised very quickly in this manner. Tizku l'mitzvos!
11:23 PM
Lady-Light said…
Shoshana: In my experience, not much money is raised in these groups, however, your idea is still a good one. I just need to find the time to do it!
I actually was very pleased to receive several calls about helping Odel, and I am starting to make arrangements for donations to be transferred...
2:09 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Great Debate: Is it Itsy Bitsy, or Inky Dinky, of Spider Fame?

Image
For the better part of a year, I've had an on-again, off-again debate with my D.H. as to the "correct" adjective in the children's finger-play nursery rhyme, "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider" (now you know which one I favor). My D. H. insists that the correct descriptive is "inky dinky," whereas I demur.  I vaguely recollect from my own childhood, either hearing " itsy-bitsy spider ," or even more familiar to me, the description "eency-weency," referring to said spider's miniscule size, yet plucky persistance, and how he (she?) braved the violent rainstorm which "washed it out" after the arduous climb up the water spout, yet doggedly climbed the spout again, after the sun came out and 'dried up all the rain.' Many, if not most of our American nursery rhymes originated on the other side of the pond, in England, for obvious reasons: the American colonists were British in origin, and brought with them the culture an...
Read more

The End. Is there a Beginning...?

This is my first post back on Tikkun Olam since April 23rd, 2015. It does not feel real. Why is it that we never think we will ever have a JOLT in our lives that will change the entire life course we have been traveling? We continue on, day by day, complacent, even in the face of serious illness--believing that what we are living is the only reality; that it is immutable, that it is PHYSICAL: you can touch it, feel it, and it will continue to be there for you tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow... But it isn't. And it won't.  Because the unthinkable can, and does, happen, in time. To everybody. As it happened to me, almost a year ago, on August 10, 2015, when my DH - Dear Husband, of 46 years, died. I am living in an Alternate Universe. Because the universe in which I was living all my life until now, is gone. I still want to slap myself in the face and wake myself up. It's a dream. A terrible nightmare.  It's a horror movie with a frightening ending, but I will...
Read more

Hijab for Jewish Women?

Image
Someone used this phrase in a comment on a post about the hijab wearing Jewish women in Ramat Bet Shemesh Alef: "modern Hareidi community;" this is an oxymoron. Just for the record, I rarely agree with a Hareidi interpretation of anything. This mode of dress is just a bad interpretation of a good concept ( tzniyut ) taken to extremes. Personally, I cover my hair because I feel it increases my humility by remembering that there is a G-d above me ( not because of the reason of less attraction to men). I chose many years ago to do so; but I have come to believe a woman can be Orthodox without covering her hair all the time; just while in shul, and where it shows respect for the Torah, such as at shiurim, or where it is the preferred mode of dress, such as at yeshiva dinners and the like. But to go to the grocery? Not necessarily . I think the whole message of tzniyut is lost in those hijab cases: where will they go next? Hiding in the home and not going out? Sitting behind a cur...
Read more