Israeli society is facing the challenge of Coronavirus through the widespread isolation of individuals, families, and even the total closure of entire communities. This is a huge challenge at the national level when it comes to meeting the urgent basic needs of those isolated individuals and communities.

As time goes on, it is becoming clear that the Coronavirus crisis will last for at least several months, and needs will subsequently increase until returning to routine. This will undoubtedly overload the existing emergency systems and require civil society to be equipped during and after the crisis, in a unified and synchronized manner, to maximize the potential of providing assistance to local commanders in each authority and other competent bodies.

This effort is a collaboration between the IACC, The Ichud Hatzala (Volunteer Rescue Union) and the Lev Echad organization (One Heart Association) each bringing to the partnership their unique value-add and assets.

We established the “Situation Room” telephone line “1221 – Reaching Everyone” – incoming calls will be directed to a national emergency center that will be able to answer the calls of citizens across the country and dispatch over 30,000 vetted volunteers. These volunteers will only answer to emergency situations and will be able to alleviate the pressures put on the state emergency system.

We have already recruited 18,000 volunteers, they are all connected to and part of the community centers. We hope to equip each volunteer with all the equipment necessary for emergency situations, including petty cash- where if need be the volunteer can purchase necessary goods. We have trained the current volunteers for a range of emergencies so they are prepared upon arrival. We have also tested our technical systems to make sure that we can operate under the influx of calls and dispatchments, and we expect 5,000 calls a day. We also need to market and advertise the service, of which the responsibility to seek resources falls on the IACC.