Acting Locally, Thinking Globally

A couple of weeks ago, a couple of hundred volunteers at Beth El Hebrew Congregation of Alexandria Virginia put together more than 20,000 kits filled with very common kitchen ingredients. Congregants, members of nearby churches and synagogues, kids looking for volunteer credit (or just to do a mitzvah), and a host of others worked together as a bunch of big, happy, do-gooder assembly lines. Six to a table, in shifts, at about 20 tables.

From Wikipedia:

Oral rehydration therapy (ORT) is a simple, cheap, and effective treatment for dehydration associated with diarrhea, particularly gastroenteritis, such as that caused by cholera or rotavirus. ORT consists of a solution of salts and sugars which is taken by mouth. It is used around the world, but is most important in the developing world, where it saves millions of children a year from death due to diarrhea—the second leading cause of death in children under five.

The executive director of my shul sent out this message last week:

I received a phone call from the Global Assist Network at noon yesterday to advise me that there is an immediate critical need for the 20,000 rehydration packets (prepared here at BEHC on March 1) in Darfur. Global Assist Network dispatched a FedEx truck which picked up the packets in the afternoon. The packets will be immediately airlifted to Darfur and are scheduled to arrive for distribution on Monday.

Tikkun Olam - the repair of the world is a fundamental value of Judaism. BEHC is a caring community and very proud of its social action efforts of tikkun olam - to repair the world.

YAAAAAAAY