Yad Sarah is part of everyday life in Israel

Yad Sarah, the largest volunteer staffed organization in Israel, provides a vital array of compassionate health and home care services for people of all ages.  

Founded in 1976, Yad Sarah now has 122 branches throughout Israel staffed by more than 7,000 volunteers. Although the organization is best known for its extensive Lending Service for medical equipment, its 7,000+ volunteers also drive our wheelchair accessible vans, reach out to the homebound, advocate for the elderly at risk for abuse, provide in-home geriatric dental care and staff our Play Center for children with special needs. More than 800,000 receive help from Yad Sarah annually.  

Yad Sarah’s annual operating budget is financed almost completely by donations, over 70 percent of which are raised within Israel. No ongoing government assistance is received.

Quick Facts:

  • One out of two families in Israel has been helped by Yad Sarah.
  • Every 15 minutes, someone in Israel borrows a wheelchair from Yad Sarah
  • Everyone in Israel knows someone who volunteers at Yad Sarah

Yad Sarah's Mission

plantBringing help and hope to the people of Israel

Yad Sarah is Israel’s largest volunteer-staffed organization, providing a wide array of compassionate health and home care services for people of all ages, with special programs directed at support for older adults and for children and adults with disabilities.

Yad Sarah’s free services are delivered by over 7,000 volunteers in more than 120 branches across Israel, and bring help – and hope - to more than 800,000 people in need each year, among them the frail elderly, the homebound, victims of terror and domestic abuse, and children and adults with special needs.

Each year, the organization’s professional staff and devoted volunteers lend out hundreds of thousands of items such as wheelchairs, crutches, and oxygen machines; drive the sick and injured to medical appointments in accessible vans; help disabled people recovering from illness or injury to regain their independence through therapeutic programming at the Day Rehabilitation Centers; staff an emergency home alarm center with thousands of subscribers; provideing free legal aid to thousands of at-risk elderly through the Yad Riva Legal Services program; offer after-school programming and parental guidance for families with children with disabilities; extend therapeutic support for couples and families coping with domestic violence; and offer bring free or low cost in-home dental care to impoverished, homebound older adults. living in poverty.

Yad Sarah's History

kotelFrom humble beginnings, a compassionate organization grew

From modest beginnings as a lending charity in a private apartment 40 years ago, Yad Sarah has expanded greatly to meet a huge and growing need, and now operates out of 100+ branches in Israeli cities, development towns, and Arab villages across the country. Yad Sarah estimates that its services and activities save the Israeli economy some $320 million each year in healthcare costs and hospital fees.

The organization’s annual budget of $23 million is covered almost exclusively by private donations and foundation grants. Its exceptional work on behalf of vulnerable populations has been recognized through numerous national awards, including the prestigious Israel Prize, the Kaplan Efficiency Prize, and the President’s Voluntary Service Award. In 2005, Yad Sarah was recognized as an advisory body to the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations -- the first time ever that an Israeli-Jewish organization achieved this status.

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