The value of being prepared: Emergency training in northern Israel

When an emergency strikes, the first hours and days are critical. That’s why preparedness is everything. Around the world IsraAID works to not only help communities recover from disasters, but also to make sure that they’re better prepared for whatever may come. As part of our emergency response at home, we’ve teamed up with the Israeli Association of Community Centers, to help communities in the north feel more secure, better prepared, and ensure that they have a plan in place as fears of a wider regional war spike.

We’re establishing 140 emergency response teams in 80 municipalities. Emergency teams will stand ready to lead their community in case of emergency. That means having equipment, skills in decision-making and emotional support, an emergency plan, and a team of volunteers ready to carry it out. Over the past month, community leaders have been taking part in training to teach them the skills they need to stay cool under pressure and be effective in any situation – saving lives and making their communities stronger in the face of adversity.

Last week we visited one of these training sessions and spoke to the community leaders about their homes, their hopes, and what they learned. Here’s what they had to say about the importance of resilience, community, and being prepared for anything:

Maisa is a community manager and volunteer coordinator at the community center of Shfar’am – a mixed Christian, Muslim, Druze, and Bedouin town of about 50,000 people in northern Israel.

“Like all the towns across Israel, people are under pressure. The situation takes an emotional toll and causes anxiety. We’re a very tight-knit community, but people don’t know how to act in emergency mode. During normal times yes, in emergencies no,” she said. “I love our people’s generosity, that they want to volunteer and give back. This way they get to be part of both the planning and the execution.”

“We got a lot of tools in this training – how to act in an emergency, how to build a work plan, how to encourage people to take part in the program, and how to recruit volunteers in the best way. For example, a lot of people want to volunteer, but it’s important to know how to assign tasks based on their skills, and personality, and what they have to give,” Maisa said.

“Also, one of the most important things I learned is how to keep people calm when things are tense,” she added. “My dream is to have people ready to respond in every neighborhood. That’s how we create a safer community – people won’t be stressed anymore, they’ll know that they have somewhere to turn if something happens.”

Razi, 28, is the deputy to the mayor in his hometown of Isfiya, a Druze community in northern Israel. He oversees coordinating his town’s emergency response and gathering volunteers.

“Everyone is talking about the war and what will happen, while we’re in it, and what happens if we have an incident, but nobody is talking about what happens after,” he says. “Because an emergency doesn’t just have a physical impact, but an emotional one. We need to learn to hold space for people, to listen to them, and to create real resilience. Everywhere, in every moment. We need to learn to help people return to the way things were before. So of course I was interested, and right away I knew I could help.”

“As a Druze community, we’re already a bit of a special case. Everyone knows everyone. If something happens – it doesn’t matter to which family – everyone will volunteer to help. So, we have a village that’s especially tight-knit, and I think that’s a huge advantage in an emergency,” he said. “The volunteers I brought have already brought more volunteers. That’s also a tool we can implement in emergencies and also in our normal routine.”

“I hope everything we learn here will never leave the classroom, that we’ll never have to use it in real life. It’s important to be as prepared as can be, but it’s best if all this stays as exercises and preparation and not for real,” he says. “I hope this all ends as soon as possible, and that people stay strong, and that they stay united.”

Mira, from Migdal HaEmek, and Nidal, from Yefiya, just found out that they are neighbors. Their towns – one Jewish majority, and one Arab majority – lie right next door to one another. Both women volunteered to be on their towns’ emergency response teams. Over the course of the training, they became fast friends.

“For me, this training was so interesting because I felt that we needed to collaborate more closely with different actors – from the regional council to the municipality, to the community center. We need to have a lot of people working together,” Nidal said.

“It’s a real period of uncertainty in the country. This experience brought me to a lot of different people from across the country, different cultures, and I discovered that we’re all in the same boat,” Mira said. “One of the things that I really learned is that there’s nothing like cooperation. We learned to work together in this room, and this collaboration we learned is something we can take back to our communities,” Mira adds as Nidal nods emphatically.

“Mira taught me a lot about organization. She swoops in so easily, gets everything together, and starts to…” Nidal waves her hand around in a whirlwind and both women laugh. “She’s quick, she gets things together, and takes on tasks,” she said.

“And Nidal taught me a lot about patience,” Mira laughs. “she taught me about working together, and sharing ideas. And I also learned a lot about her community.”

“We hope that we’ll wake up tomorrow and there won’t be any war,” Nidal says. “Right,” Mira adds, “that’s what I want. That we wake up tomorrow and they say, the war is over. Okay, we’ve learned, we’ve educated ourselves, and now we’re prepared in case of a natural disaster.”