Vicky Tiferet, a volunteer EMT with United Hatzalah on Moshav Yuval in northern Israel has become the first woman in the organization's history to head a chapter after she was put in charge of United Hatzalah for Hula Valley last week.
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Tiferet succeeded Yossi Lahav.
United Hatzalah is subdivided into chapters, allowing the organization to provide individual attention appropriate to the regional, religious and cultural sensitivities of its volunteers and patients. There are currently 81 chapters operating throughout Israel.
Tiferet said she does not see her new role as "something grandiose," but that her position would allow her to more easily help her "fellow first responders in providing as high a level of emergency care as they can."
The EMT was recently recognized by the organization for her dedicated service and last Hanukkah became the first recipient of the Korenvaes Miracle Award.
Tiferet immigrated to Israel from Russia in 1991 at the age of nine. She lives on Moshav Yuval with her husband and four children. She started volunteering with United Hatzalah three years ago after being diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS), a chronic disease that causes inflammation of the joints and spine that results in severe pain.
In addition to her EMS work, Tiferet is active in United Hatzalah's Ten Kavod ("Giving Honor") project, which sends out volunteers to visit elderly patients on a weekly basis to assess and help them maintain their health, as well as spend some time with them to alleviate the sense of loneliness that many elderly people feel.
Tiferet is also the regional coordinator of the Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Unit (PCRU) for the Hula Valley and Golan Heights.
"Due to AS, I live with pain 24/7, and every day that passes is another day closer to the time that I will have to use a wheelchair to get around," she said. "Whenever I wake up, I need to perform a series of exercises before I can move my limbs without serious pain. It makes getting up in the middle of the night to rush out to medical emergencies extremely difficult.
"But I do it, and I do it with love. Because the thing that keeps me healthy is the adrenaline rush that I get every time that I respond to an emergency. It does me good to help others. I believe that what happens with most of our illnesses is that they are somewhat diminished if we are happy and spiritually healthy," Tiferet said.
Reprinted with permission from JNS.org
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