In a moving ceremony held on October 31 at the Soroka Medical Center, the cornerstone was laid for the 4th floor of the Saban Pediatric Medical Center and the Pediatric Surgery Department. In attendance were Keren Hayesod representatives headed by KH-Director General Greg Masel and Director of KH-Europe Yaakov Snir, managing staff of the Soroka Medical Center and of its Pediatric Department, as well as members of the donor family and their friends.

Thanks to the magnanimous donation of the family from Milano, who chose to remain anonymous, construction of the center’s 4th floor and Pediatric Surgery Department will commence in 2009. Upon completion, the new floor will house the Pediatric Surgery Department, the last remaining department to be transferred from the old building.

KH-Director General Greg Masel: “When I met the donor family, their only request was to do something for Israel that was different. This project at the Soroka Medical Center contains the all important elements of the family’s wishes – donation to a project related to children and to a leading institution committed to uplifting the population in a peripheral region of Israel. With this donation, the family, Keren Hayesod and the Soroka Medical Center, promote the message of partnership, commitment and leadership.”

 Keren Hayesod Director General, Greg Masel, addresses the audience

According to Soroka Medical Center Director, Dr. Michael Sherf, “The Saban Center, which until five years ago was just a dream, is now a reality. Hospitalization conditions for some 400,000 children living in the south have improved immeasurably, and with the laying of this cornerstone we are reaching the end of closing a circle. All dreams begin with one small step, and this cornerstone represents the final step on the path to achieving it. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Keren Hayesod who embarked with us on this long and exciting path, and to thank the generous Italian family from Milan, who made all of this possible.”

Soroka Medical Center Director, Dr. Michael Sherf,
greeting the donors and the participants

The ceremony was also attended by members of the donor family, and their friends such as Mr. Ronni Benatoff, Mrs. Luisa Grego and Mr. Claudio Grego, who thanked those at the Soroka Medical Center for “enabling us to form a relationship that goes beyond a professional connection. The warmth with which the hospital welcomed us will remain with me and my family forever.” Mr. Grego also thanked Keren Hayesod for “allowing me to be the contact person and to fulfill the family’s vision for the Soroka Medical Center and for the State of Israel.”

The ceremony also included speeches by Chairman of Keren Hayesod-Italy Mr. Sami Blanga, Prof. Maty Lifshitz – who heads Soroka’s Pediatric Department and Prof. Zehavi Cohen – head  of the hospital’s Pediatric Surgery Department, who led the ceremony in Italian.

Prof. Zehavi Cohen, head of  Soroka’s Pediatric Department,
explains the activities of his department

Claudio Grego, friend of the generous family from Milan, takes the podium

The audience also included pediatric surgery young patients, each of whom related his personal experiences and together launched a bouquet of balloons and wishes into the air. The ceremony ended with everyone signing a scroll with commitment to the completion of the project, after which the scroll was interred in one of the foundation stones of the additional floor.

The Saban Pediatric Medical Center was inaugurated six weeks ago at a ceremony attended by President Shimon Peres, PM Ehud Olmert, the Saban Family and numerous other notables.  The impressive new children’s hospital constitutes the first hospitalization facility for children in the Negev and has launched Soroka’s pediatric department into a new and promising era.

The new hospitalization facility currently includes a pediatric emergency department and a pediatric intensive care unit on the ground floor, together with a branch of “Beterem” – The National Center for Children’s Health and Safety, and the child-at-risk unit. A new mato-oncological ward has been added as well as three general wards, a youth ward and an endoscopy institute for bronchoscopies and tracheoscopies. The new children’s hospital includes classrooms and recreation facilities for children and adolescents as part of a school for hospitalized children.