From problems to solutions
“Knowing that anything you do, is changing the world for somebody, is the biggest reward of all. It is so easy for us, and so meaningful for them.”
Michael Menksy is South African by birth and lives in the North of Israel, in the Jezreel Valley. He is an independent consultant for strategic community development, community management and community work projects. During his career, he’s worked all around the world with various agencies, and in Israel, he’s been involved in many different community projects from the South to the North. He joined NATAN’s Ukrainian Refugee Relief Operation in Poland in May as the Head of Delegation of Team 8, where he played a crucial part in seeing projects and tasks through from conception to completion.
in Michael’s words:
As Head of Delegation it was basically problem-solving. You don’t know anybody, you don’t know what is around, where to get things, and you have to sort of find your way. And that’s really what those two weeks were about. It was just like, for instance, the EKG paper runs out, which means you have to find the right EKG paper or the right printer cartage for the right printer. Being the Head of Delegation is being the one who makes sure everything is running correctly. One of our team members started calling me “Magic Michael”. There were problems around, and they didn’t understand how I was doing it. That’s what I basically think my biggest achievement was; basically finding solutions to problems, along the way, and making things happen. You have the doctors, you have the social workers and they know what they are doing. But sometimes, there can be a case and you don’t really know the answers and you are the one providing the solutions. It is not something, I am not used to, but it was nice being able to do it in this environment and to know that anything you do for them is just so rewarding, because they have nothing. Knowing that anything you do is changing the world for somebody is the biggest reward of all. It is just so easy for us and so meaningful for them. I came away so appreciative of what I have.
Let me tell give you an example: A woman came in and our doctor diagnosed that her boy had scabies. It is a skin disease, and it is very infectious. You can’t have scabies in a center like that. And what do you do? We immediately spoke to the United Nations, and the United Nations didn’t know what to do. So we took it into our own hands. I got the marines, who were volunteering, to do a disinfection of the rooms. I got the laundry to boil the clothing instead of throwing it out. The family was really scared about us destroying the clothing, as this was all they had. So we boiled the clothing, we did like four washes. And we built some sort of a side clinic just for that family and we put them there. We checked up on them all day. There was no other scabies spread and we managed to contain it and also to get the medication for scabies. There was nothing around. I had to go to town and to look around. It was like running around and getting the stuff. That was very rewarding to be able to help the family in a situation where nobody knew what to do.
Sometimes all you need is a hammer and nails
A motto I live by is: Take memories, leave footprints. For this we, as volunteers, have to be very versatile. We saw that many of the elderly and invalids were living in separate quarters and they didn’t have anywhere to store their luggage. They needed some kind of storage space. So what we did was to take the many wooden crates that were there and we built a storage facility. The last day, everybody was asking: “Where is Michael? Where is Michael?”, and I was there with a hammer and nails, I was building a storage facility with some other volunteers. This is how I spent half a day of my last day in Poland and I thought that this solution was better than nothing in the meantime. You have to improvise. You have to be very intuitive, and if you are standing still, you are moving backwards. That is really what I enjoyed most, I enjoyed the hands-on work.
From a spectator to an active player with a great team
I was very excited that we were going to Poland. It was for me a dream, because the whole time from the moment the war broke out, I thought: how can I help? What can I do? I felt very inept. I was watching the news, and I was saying, how can I be more than a spectator, some kind of player, someone that does something. I wasn’t going to get my gun and go fighting in Ukraine, that not, but at least, I wanted to be there and help. And getting on the plane and going with the delegation was wonderful for me. I worked in Jewish agencies relief programs, so it wasn’t something completely new for me, but I wasn’t in a war zone before.
What was also really beautiful for me, was the delegation itself. We had such a great time. It was me and all the women. Like Charlie’s angels, I got my angels. We all got along very well together. I think what was inspiring too, was having Danny [Chair of NATAN] with us for a few days. Just seeing the way he gave me complete control was really encouraging for me because that meant that he trusted me. He made me understand that whatever needs to be done, he knows I can do it with my team.
