The Volunteer Behind Isolation: "The Only One Who Hasn't Heard About the Coronavirus Is Cancer"

While the entire world is engrossed in the coronavirus crisis, for some, this crisis is a 'crisis on top of a crisis.' If you find yourself these days in the children's oncology ward at Tel HaShomer, and I hope you won't need to come there, you will see that entering the ward feels like securing a sensitive military facility in southern Israel; it's simply impenetrable.

I did have to come, and at the ward's entrance, I met Emunah Pinchasi, who never tires of finding ways to send something heartwarming to one of the children behind the barriers. "Yesterday was a birthday for one of the kids with cancer," Pinchasi recounts with tears. "This sweet child has been waiting for a year for us to celebrate his birthday, but then the coronavirus virus upended everything. It breaks my heart. We can't see him as entry is forbidden. But we prepared him a huge gift with *Rachchei Lev* to try to cheer him up as best we can under the current conditions."

Emunah Pinchasi, 32, who holds a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's in organizational consulting, lives in Givat Shmuel and started her activities with the *Rachchei Lev* organization 13 years ago. Today, she manages the organization's activities and strategies. But now, strategy seems to be taking a back seat as the activities have changed direction, altering everything she knew.

Saving Lives, But in a Different Way

I understand you cannot enter the ward.

"Correct, you understand well, but I'll explain further. Last week, when the Ministry of Health's guidelines started, we were allowed to enter the ward with protective gear we took from the hospital. Later, the hospital informed us they couldn't provide the protective gear due to a shortage. So, we had to organize our own protection gear."

I asked Pinchasi if this meant that with their new gear, they could enter the ward. In response, she took a deep breath and said to me, "Absolutely not; although we managed to acquire protective gear, on Saturday night, the Prime Minister announced further guidelines that isolated the oncology patients even more, rendering our hard-acquired gear unsuitable for entry. Nonetheless, we are now working on obtaining stricter and more suitable equipment to somehow enter the ward and brighten the sick and isolated children."

As someone responsible for a large group of volunteer girls, what can you still manage to do?

"*Baruch Hashem*, when there's a will to help, there's always a way. I received detailed instructions from my director, and we organized a change in activities. We changed our plan, and now we've taken on a project to entertain the children of hospital staff. These are children of doctors busy saving lives who can't stay home right now. The children come to the hospital every day with their parents, and we spread them across classrooms, with ten children per class, maintaining distance as per the Ministry of Health's instructions. Our precious girls engage and activate them with various activities and crafts. Naturally, we don't have enough hands for all this, so many other dear youths and volunteers joined us to help give hospital staff some peace, which is what we are doing right now to save lives."

And what about the activities for sick children? Have they stopped?

"Essentially, yes, but not entirely. We must remember that cancer doesn't care about the coronavirus; it keeps marching on, and the coronavirus only complicates the medical situation of the children, due to their extremely low or nonexistent immunity levels. Besides the sick child, there are needs, and there's the family around them supporting them, and they need our assistance that we can provide outside the ward. Everything we can do outside the ward - we do, like food distribution, lodging, support, and lending an ear. For instance, just yesterday, we transferred a child with a severe tumor from Soroka to Tel HaShomer. We continue working, but in a more complex and complicated way. Meanwhile, we also hold regular strategy meetings with the hospital's psychological and social services to be coordinated and ready for any situation."

Bringing Joy in Every Situation

Pinchasi doesn't stay still. While talking to me, she handles dozens of cases sent to her phone. I asked her to show me one of the requests she's currently handling, and then I realized the story is much more complicated than I thought.

"There's a very sick girl who urgently needed to fly to the United States," she passionately recounts. "In such a situation, it's a massive project that begins with the necessity of finding a flight she can board. Even after finding such a flight, it turned out it passed through a coronavirus-stricken country, doubling our and the medical team's dilemma. Nevertheless, it was decided to proceed, with an unprecedented focus on isolating the girl, as she's an oncology patient, her body weaponless against any virus, not even the mildest one, certainly not the coronavirus. Eventually, with goodwill and with *siyat dishmaya*, we succeeded in flying her. Now she's in the U.S., and I feel relieved."

While speaking with Pinchasi, I noticed one volunteer, covered in layers of protection, entering the ward. "Wait, didn't you say there's no entry to the ward?" I challenged her. But Pinchasi was unfazed. "There's no entry to the ward, except once a day by one volunteer. She enters with full protective measures and distributes sterile and protected food to the sick children, who just want to know we haven't abandoned them. They don't quite understand how suddenly everything has changed. From continuous intense activity, it's now suddenly quiet and still."

Is this your only connection with them?

"No. Thanks to modern technology, we have set up various groups that engage in Skype and WhatsApp calls to keep our sweet children active from afar. Through this, we try to mitigate their harsh loneliness."

When I try to ask Pinchasi if all these Skype calls, after a few times, don't start to bore them, she explains to me: "True, we don't intend to continue this much longer. We understand it's not a real solution, so we are also working to acquire complete and triple protective gear that will allow us and all the precious girls volunteering to enter the sweet children and cheer them like in routine days. May we succeed in securing this gear," whispers Pinchasi as her wish.

Do you know of any of your children who contracted the coronavirus?

"Wow, almost. It was quite a drama. There was a child suspected of having the coronavirus, which meant if it was positive, the whole ward - including doctors, nurses, children, and families - would enter isolation. It would have been a true disaster. There was real hysteria, but thankfully it was found he didn't have coronavirus, and routine returned to normal."

And volunteers who had to go into isolation? Do you have any?

Pinchasi laughs. "The fourteen-day isolation that many people have entered these days is kind of amusing to me because we have dozens of sick children who are not isolated for fourteen days but fourteen months or more, between four walls. That's our real concern. Maybe through this, the general public will understand the real distress these kids face. They simply must stay sterile all the time, which is why they can't be free in public spaces. And remember, and may everyone remember, they're just children."

Suddenly, Pinchasi lowers her voice and tearfully tells me, "And the cancellations we've had here? Do you know what I'm talking about? We canceled all activities, fun days, summer camps, birthdays, and a caravan trip that was supposed to start this week, all got canceled. It's terrible sorrow for the children, and much more than sorrow, because what gives these children the strength to cope are the promises and the expectations we create around these activities. Now, what will give them strength? I am very worried.

"And it's not just the cancellations themselves but also their succession," Pinchasi explains. "The kids haven't yet recovered from one cancellation, and already another falls upon them. For instance, a central Purim party was supposed to be held, which we had been preparing for months. Each child chooses their dream costume, regardless of the price, and we make sure to provide it. Now everything got canceled to everyone's dismay. Furthermore, each year we hold a massive reading of the megillah in the ward, with a lot of noise and joy, and this year we were informed the reading was canceled, and the city of Shushan was bewildered. Honestly, it was too much for me and the children, how much can they endure?

"We decided we couldn't give that up either. The CEO approached the children's building management and requested they approve the reading of the megillah. They really wanted to help us hold the ceremony, so we jointly approached the hospital's infection department for the desired approval. Eventually, after strict procedures, they approved the reading of the megillah, and this, of course, maintaining a distance of one and a half meters between each other. What I saw during the reading was the girl Tamar, who didn't miss a single 'Haman' and made noise with all her might. Just for that, it was worth all the effort. I realized that for these children, it is the only Purim experience they have, so it is worth fighting for at all costs. We fought and succeeded. Now we'll fight cancer too, with Hashem's help."