A bomb explodes somewhere in the distance, followed by heart-wrenchingcries for help. An ambulance arrives and helps the alive and injured, while loved ones and relatives of the dead continue to keen. With the fading sound of the siren, the curtain falls on yet another terrorist attack.
But to Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, chairman of Zaka, and his team ofvolunteers, this is just the opening act.
Zaka is a non-profit organisation authorised by the Israeli police to handle the recovery and identification of body parts. Though headquartered in Israel, the group carries out international relief operations across the globe.
They were active during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Thailand, the November 26, 2008 attacks in Mumbai, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and many other disasters.
At the disaster site, the volunteers first attend to the injured in an effort to save as many lives as possible. Once that is done, they ensure that all body parts are collected for burial.
“This work is extremely harrowing and we offer psychological counselling for our volunteers,” says Meshi-Zahav.
Born in Jerusalem into what he describes as “an ulra-Orthodox family”, he had his first real brush with a suicide attack in 1989, during the infamous Tel Aviv-Jerusalem bus 405 attack.
“After the 405 bus attack, I realised that there were no government agencies fulfilling the role of collecting the remains of the victims for burial in accordance with Jewish law, which requires every body part and human tissue to be buried,” explains Meshi-Zahav.
Zaka honours the dead by ensuring that they are given a proper burial — irrespective of religion, caste or creed. “We also have volunteers from the Christian, Muslim, Druze and Bedouin communities who share our values… If there’s no respect for the dead, there’s no respect for life. We therefore collect the remains of the suicide bomber for burial, as well,” he says. Meshi-Zahav can recall numerous distressful incidents that haunt his mind. “On a personal level, there was this time I was called out for a road accident, only to find that the victim was my cousin.”
Thirty-one-year old Mati Goldstein, chief officer, Zaka, International Rescue & Recovery, rates the tsunami experience as his worst: “Sifting through thousands and thousands of bodies with the feeling that this will never end …”
Meshi-Zahav recalls a distressing incident during the 26/11 attack at Nariman House. “After clearing the scene of the horrific massacre at the House, one of our volunteers was shocked to see that his close friend was one of the victims. We all sat together — praying, crying and singing in order to release the emotions we had kept in check while we finished our work.”
Balancing volunteer work and domestic life is not easy, admits Goldstein, who’s married with four children. “It is impossible to know when such a disaster will happen. We need to deal with dropping everything from work and family and not knowing when we get back.”
Running such an organisation on a world-wide scale is not easy. With the Israeli government providing for only 10% of its budget, Zaka depends on the support of donors.
“Like all other not-for-profits, we have been hit by the global economic recession, which means we have to work harder to raise funds,” says Meshi-Zahav.
But the lack of funds has not deterred the volunteers from their self-chosen path.
The International Rescue Unit is expanding to train more volunteers in cities all over the world, so that they will be quick and efficient in responding to a desperate cry for help in their local community, in the event of a mass casualty incident. “This is the way forward for our organisation — to spread our expertise to all those communities who need to take care of themselves,” says Meshi-Zahav.
Comments
