American Friends of Magen David Adom

(see schedule o)magen David Adom plays four critical roles as israel's national non-government, non-profit organization tasked with the creation and management of the nation's emergency medical system. It's first and most expansive role is as the national emergency medical service, providing pre-hospital emergency medical services to israel's over 10 million citizens, and the 2 million or more tourists who visit each year. In this program, afmda provided 217 basic life support ambulances, 96 mobile intensive care unit ambulances, 121 first responder motorcycles, 1 command and control vehicle, and 5 bloodmobile beds that are specially equipped to speed through traffic to arrive at the scene of an illness or incident before an ambulance. In addition, afmda provided thousands of medical equipment units, including monitors, communication equipment, defibrillators and training equipment. Afmda also funded the training of emts and paramedics. The second critical responsibility with which mda is tasked is the testing, processing and distribution of israel's national blood supply. 2022 saw the completion of the construction of the world's first underground and shielded blood bank, funded by afmda and for which construction began in 2017. This new facility will have the capacity to process more than 500,000 units of blood annually and will protect the blood supply in case of a terrorist attack, war or earthquake. Afmda also donated one blood mobile that is used in blood drives across the country. Mda is the agency responsible for all medical operations in the event of a mass casualty event, working closely with the police and fire departments of the country. Afmda provides millions of dollars in medical supplies used daily by the ems division and deployed during mass casualty drills.israel's representative to the international committee of the red cross (icrc) is Magen David Adom, and in that role, mda participates in international rescue missions and operations sanctioned by the icrc. In 2023, mda was asked to provide life-saving medical services for victims of the war in ukraine, and mda paramedics were stationed at a field hospital outside lviv, ukraine and opened a field clinic in chisinau, moldova, treating patients fleeing the war. Afmda funded three armored ambulances to replace armored ambulances that mda donated to the ukrainian red cross.through their support of afmda, American donors are playing a tangible and dramatic role in saving lives in israel.