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The number to be used for sending messages is 052-7000-101. The deaf and hard of hearing who need help from MDA will be able to send in a text message, their full name, exact address and details of the problem - until now the deaf could only call for help using a fax machine. Meital Yassur Beit Or.
The emergency numbers - 100, 101 and 102 - are all well known to us by heart from a very early age, and we hope never to have to use them. What do the deaf and hard of hearing do when they need to call an emergency service? How do they call for help? Until recently they had a major problem, and sometimes it cost them their lives. Magen David Adom has nowadays introduced a new service for the deaf and hard of hearing, which will allow them to call for help by sending an SMS message.
The new service enables them to send a message to the national MDA dispatching centre. The Dispatching officer receiving the message can then send the nearest available emergency vehicle and communicate with the hard of hearing person who has turned to him for help.
As a result of a request from the Organization of Deaf People to MDA a few months ago, the Director General, Eli Bin, ordered his staff to find the necessary technology to help those who are hard of hearing. Up until now, the deaf could only turn to MDA by using a fax machine.
The number to send SMS messages is 052-7000-101. The deaf or hard of hearing who need help must send a message with the following particulars: full name, full address and details of the problem.
Lilach Suissa, Director of the organisation "Kehilla Negisha BeSderot" taking care of about 70 invalids and hard of hearing people - half of them suffering as a result of injury to their ears when Kassam rockets fell - commended the new service. "This is a very great help, as these people are helpless" said Suissa. "The deaf have no way of reacting. If they do not have a person who can translate sign language standing next to them, they are unable to receive help, even from a neighbor. The SMS service is a wonderful thing for the deaf, and can be compared to the first water tap that came to the South".
At the same time that she was giving praise, Suissa brought up the main problem facing the hard of hearing public in Sderot, saying it is not calling an ambulance in time of emergency that is the problem, but receiving help from psychologists and other professionals.
Avi Shitrit in Sderot has 4 deaf siblings who live with their mother, who hears well. The siblings use beepers that the Home Front use to warn them when there is a "Colour Red" alert. Shitrit: "If anything were to happen to my mother, they would not be able to call for an ambulance, the police - or anybody else. This service is wonderful news from our point of view".
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