Noach Braun, IGDC founder and co-CEO joined the show Walking at Midnight on Galei Tzahal to speak about the current work the IGDC is doing to provide emotional support to injured and displaced Israelis during this conflict. Translation below.
The pain that Orit has endured and the pain Galit feels in missing Vivian so I want to offer you therapy – but therapy in the form of Labrador puppies that have been called up for active duty, order 8. These puppies are taken to the hospital to make the patients happy and bring smiles to the wounded in the hospital. And I myself want a puppy like this in my home!
Noach Braun: So I am telling the listeners about a small/big place called the Israel Guide Dog Center, which is near Moshav Beit Oved. We started off about 40 years ago. We have changed the lives of people, more than 800 people. The idea was to provide any person with visual impairment or blindness a guide dog, and today, the center breeds almost 170 puppies every year. As you said, sweet Labradors, Golden Retrievers by crossbreeding and other breeds.
Each puppy that reaches 1 year of age, we interview and ask what they want to do when they grow up. There are 4 possibilities today: for breeding – continue to breed the next generation, as guide dogs for people with blindness, or for soldiers who deal day by day with their PTSD. And last but not least, families of children with special needs, mainly on the Autism spectrum. In short, this small, big place changes the lives of many people.
Interviewer: What are you doing now during the war in this project with dogs under Tzav 8 (call-up for active duty)
Noach: Yes, not only us. When this horrid thing fell on all of us, at first, foster families and our team came with dogs and puppies to the hospitals and hotels to cheer up and raise a smile. A dog is something which is all heart and gives strength, and now we all need to be strengthened. One of the dogs is related to you—an amazing dog by the name of Pele.
Interviewer: Pele is indeed a part of our family. Eitan and Yifat raised him for a year, and he was recruited to the department of post-trauma; we literally saw him in videos thanks to your project in the hospitals; we started getting videos of Pele cheering people in hospitals, and it was extremely moving.
Interviewer: So how does it work? It looks as if the regular caretakers take the dogs and just come with them to the department and the dog by itself detects the person in need and he climbs on and snuggles and hugs and lets people hug him. How do they identify who is in need?
Noach: Yes, well, it comes naturally and these dogs are dogs who seek the warmth and the feelings and the petting and also the person in front of them. It is a win-win situation. But I want to point out that the Guide Dog Center for the Blind needs it 365 days a year and not only during wartime. It is important that the listeners will remember this place. Currently, we are all bodily and mentally recruited to the war and to its consequences. Many people, unfortunately, will be in need: people with post-trauma and those who have been wounded now.
I want to say that also the state and anyone who is listening, whether you are a taxi driver, bus driver, shop owner, or mall security guard, you need to show a lot of sensitivity to accessibility and understanding because, unfortunately, even today in 2023 although there is a law that allows full accessibility for the whole chain: whether it is the foster family that is raising the guide puppy or the trainer and of course the individual himself. And still even today, there are refusals. I now have a refusal for a soldier; she is under order 8 in an important army base, and she is not allowed to bring this charming puppy to the base, or soldiers with post-trauma who have to take blood tests and are refused to have their dog with them, a dog that is changing their lives. I met recently with the Minister of Social Affairs. Clearly, we are now busy with the war, but we must remember that these people will need the dogs also after the war.
Interviewer: Your call is heard, Noach. I will recommend everyone to go on Instagram, look for dogs under order 8 (call-up for active duty) and see what these dogs actually do in the departments.
Interviewer: Also, check out the centre itself. Send our warm regards to Pele from all of us.
Translation: Eynat Katz