Hinenu background
The Hinenu Foundation was established to harness the tremendous spirit of volunteerism by thousands of health professionals at the onset of the current war in Israel and to develop and maintain long term relationships between foreign medical volunteers and Israeli health institutions.
Hinenu in Hebrew means “We are Here”, which is based on the biblical term used by our forefathers to indicate that they were present without question when G-d called out to them. Likewise, in our present day, when Israel is struggling after the horrific attack of October 7th and the war has disrupted everyday life in Israel, medical professionals have answered unequivocally “Hinenu” to their brethren in Israel.
Even before the war, Israel has struggled for years with clinical staffing shortages, with more acute physician shortages in specific specialties and in the periphery.
As a result of Hinenu’s involvement with foreign physician volunteering in Israel during the war, Hinenu has identified that the volunteer acclimation/orientation process is often a barrier leading to an underutilization of these physician resources. Consequently, Hinenu is developing a program to assist healthcare institutions acclimate short-term foreign physician volunteers to their facility/departments. The program will include providing customized orientation materials and logistical support for incoming volunteers. This will foster a more efficient use of the volunteer physician’s time, while reducing the burden on institutional staff resources required for onboarding processes.
We believe facilitating these short-term volunteer assignments will lead to the development of long-term relationships and recurrent collaborations between institution departments and their physician volunteers. This will in turn will strengthen the Israeli health care system and Israel as a whole.