The Story of Operation Vashamarta - about cross-sector mobilization in Corona Days

Shalom,

We chose to dedicate our first 2021 newsletter to Operation Veshmarta, which was launched ten months ago, with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in Israel, and ended recently. You are invited to get to know some of the knowledge and research products, which will give you a taste of the operation, its effects, and our recommendations for documenting collaborative processes in a time of emergency.

The operation, which began on March 19, 2020, was intended to protect the residents of geriatric institutions in Israel from the corona virus and its consequences, and was conducted under the leadership of Sheatufim and Zionism 2000 and in partnership with a wide range of stakeholders from all sectors.

Early in the first days of the outbreak, it became clear that residents of geriatric institutions are at particularly high risk: the residents are exposed to serious illness and mortality due to their age and health condition. The closure and isolation measures required to deal with the spread of the virus threatened to increase the residents' sense of loneliness and depression, and to this was added the fear that the outbreak of the epidemic in institutions would create congestion in the emergency rooms and even cause the collapse of the entire health system.

The operation is a fascinating illustration of cross-sector collaboration in times of emergency, and the creation of a collective impact under conditions of uncertainty and instability. Within a short period of time, tens of corporations, social organizations and business people enlisted in the operation, along with experts and managers from the third sector, who worked in coordination with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Labor, Welfare and Social Services.

The operation ended in December 2020. Now, with the completion of the vaccination campaign among the elderly and the rest of the population in Israel, we hope we can soon put the epidemic behind us, and implement this innovative model of action on other burning issues.

We wish you an enjoyable and effective read!

Sheatufim team

Your thoughts and responses will be welcome at: yeda@sheatufim.org.il.

The story of Veshamarta

A description of the first three months of Operation Vashmarta. The story sheds light on the chosen method of action, the rapid organization, and the impressive mobilization of partners from all sectors who worked together to protect the geriatric institutions from the corona virus. Operation teams worked to prevent corona infections among 25,000 residents in 312 nursing homes across Israel, developing and implementing a variety of courses of action that were adopted in part by the national "Magen Avot Veimahot" program (The Mothers and Fathers Shield). >> To read (Hebrew) click here

Research findings: Patterns of coping with the Corona in geriatric institutions in Israel

In order to help formulate additional measures to reduce the risk to old-aged home tenants and to assist institutions in coping, it was decided to initiate a research as part of 'Veshmarta' activities. The research included a comprehensive analysis of infection and sampling data, interviews with institution managers and a survey among hundreds of institution managers and staff.

The findings of the study show, among other things, the difficulties that the directors of the institutions had to cope with, and highlights the disagreements and difficulties that arose during this period. These findings can be useful in preparation for similar events in the future. >> For the study summary (Hebrew) click here

How to document campaigns in times of emergency?
In collaborative processes which involve a variety of actors, the stages of organization and planning have a dramatic impact on the success of the process. In times of crisis, the act of documenting can help us take control of the chaos, and understand what is going on. For this reason, we developed a tool that offers an outline for documenting collaborative processes in times of crisis, while in motion. It is a conceptual framework that helps gather the information for producing as complete a picture as possible, without missing vital information. >> For the tool (Hebrew) click here.