On July 8 she spoke to around 50 people at the St. Louis Chapter of Hadassah on July 8 about Hadassah’s hospitals’ vital role in responding to disasters. Kater is a paediatric nurse specialist and an assistant clinical professor of nursing at Saint Louis University’s School of Nursing. She spoke about Hadassah’s ability to respond unbelievably to very large-scale disasters (God forbid). She told the audience that the hospital is capable of transforming whole wards into emergency rooms within five minutes. (Read more about her visit and talk here.)

So, that is Life #3 which she’s living today.

Life #1

The beginning of Vered’s life was a painful one. She was born in Holland. During WWII she was one of the “hidden Jewish children.” After Germany invaded Holland in WWII, she was passed from family to family until the end of the war. She was thankfully reunited with her parents and sibling following the war. She studied in a few different countries before she immigrated to Israel and eventually joined the faculty at Hadassah’s Hebrew University School of Nursing in Jerusalem.

Life #2

As someone who is apparently a very compassionate person, israaid.org.il reported that in 2003, Vered volunteered on a mission to India. IsraAID is the Israel forum for international humanitarian aid. She wrote about her experiences on the site.

Vered went through the American Jewish World Service (AJWS) Volunteer Corps, for two months to Bhubaneshwar, an area with medical needs for families in the local slums. The purpose of her trip was to train teaching staff first aid and preventive health care, train teaching staff to recognize health problems, provide primary care on existing mobile clinics and develop and conduct community workshops about preventive health care behaviour.

When she visited the slums, she said that, “The cows were looking a lot healthier than the roaming children.”

She wrote more about her experiences and finished by saying:

“Teaching a needy population always teaches me how rich we are. One tends to forget the ease with which we can obtain teaching materials, the luxury of air-conditioned classrooms and the taking for granted that everyone can receive an education.

“We, in Israel are very fortunate and one should try to share this wealth.”

To read her whole first-hand account of her experiences in India, click here.

It’s always exciting to  hear about the amazing, important work that Hebrew U people are doing.