New York, April 26, 2015 – Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency medical response and
disaster-relief organization, has dispatched a team of 10 MDA paramedics and two doctors to Nepal
to assist Israeli victims of yesterday’s devastating earthquake and to provide relief efforts to the
Nepalese people. MDA’s fundraising arm in the United States, American Friends of MDA, has
launched an emergency campaign to donate to MDA’s efforts: www.afmda.org/emergency.
The MDA team, which arrived in Kathmandu today, is the first Israeli relief organization on the
ground. It will have a three-pronged mission:
1) Provide triage-style emergency first aid to any wounded Israelis, wherever they are located.
2) Create a first aid station where MDA can provide treatment for the first 48 hours by
providing painkillers, antibiotics, bandages, and preparing severely wounded victims for
transport to area hospitals.
3) Assist the “second wave” of victims — those who arrive three or four days later — by opening
and operating a field hospital.
With reports of widespread damage to buildings and structures in Kathmandu, including hospitals,
MDA’s experience creating field hospitals will be prove critical. MDA addressed similar
humanitarian crises when it responded to earthquakes in Sri Lanka in 2004 and in Haiti in 2010. The
MDA team will begin its operations out of the Chabad center in Kathmandu before building
temporary medical stations.
MDA, Israel’s representative to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, travels
anywhere in the world to rescue Israelis and aid all people in humanitarian crises.
AFMDA seeks donations to help MDA
www.afmda.org/emergency.