Keshet Association for the Aged has cared for the elderly of Tel Aviv-Yaffo since 1981 and is one of the largest non-profit organizations in central Israel, working hand in hand with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs and Tel Aviv municipal social services. It was the first welfare organization in Israel to earn the ISO 9002 quality standard for the management of geriatric institutions. More than 80,000 residents of Tel Aviv are over the age of 65 — a fifth of the city — and Keshet’s philosophy is to reach the low-income elderly among them, most of whom have no pension because Israel did not require one until 2008, and many of whom are immigrants who never accumulated benefits. We operate two Ministry of Health-licensed geriatric medical centers, Tzahalon in Yaffo and Givat HaShlosha in Petach Tikva, which together care for nearly 1,000 residents in departments for the wheelchair-bound, for people living with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, and for the mentally frail. Doctors, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, dieticians, social workers, occupational and speech therapists and volunteers provide care 24 hours a day, with meals planned by a dietician from up-to-date blood tests and activities matched by an occupational therapist to each resident’s cognitive and motor ability. In the community our Avivim and Shapira day centers serve over 300 seniors who attend daily, with therapeutic and social programs, two meals and door-to-door transportation. Keshet is a model of coexistence — Jews, Arabs, Ethiopians and Russians work side by side — and it believes the elderly should be treated with the utmost dignity, especially in the final stage of life. Donations fund isolation rooms and medical equipment, specialized beds for Holocaust survivors without family, multisensory therapy rooms, and the therapeutic, social and enrichment programs that sustain our residents and day-center members.