Over the past four years, MDA UK, together with the American Friends of MDA and the Government of Israel, have been working on the building of a new ‘Marcus National Blood Services Center’ in ramla.
The success of this project will guarantee Israel’s blood supply in the face of rapid population growth, the ongoing threat of terrorism and the increasingly complex risks of cyber-attack. The recent violence in May emphasised further the need for this new Centre, which will have a secure underground vault to store the rarest blood. Up until now, MDA teams have been manually transferring the existing supply into shelters which is sub-optimal.
The building work for the new 90m state-of-the-art Centre is set to be completed in November. Just last month, Russell Jacobs, MDA UK Chairman, made history as the first ever donor to visit the Centre.
We are also proud to share that so far we have sold 76 mezuzot to adorn the doors around the new Centre. Last year we ran a competition for students of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design to sketch out a drawing for the mezuzot. The finalists have now been selected and will shortly present their designs to Eli Bin, Director General MDA. We were amazed at how many entries were received. It really goes to show how exciting an opportunity it is for students to have their work affixed to a landmark building in the State of Israel.
