Illustrative: An aerial view shows an oil factory of Idemitsu Kosan Co. in Ichihara, east of Tokyo, Japan November 12, 2021, in this photo taken by Kyodo. Photo: Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS.

After the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan in 2011, I led an Israeli humanitarian mission to the worst affected areas of Fukushima and Miyagi.

Some people might have asked what Israel could contribute to Japan, the world’s third-largest economy. When we think of humanitarian aid, we often imagine wealthy and developed countries contributing resources to less developed nations in the global south.

And yet it was precisely our “Israeliness” that made us so useful in Japan.

Unfortunately, in Israel, we’ve developed a unique and specific expertise in managing post-traumatic stress, which is something that the Japanese have less experience with. Out of the challenges we’ve faced and continue to face as a nation, we’ve developed skills and tools that are of enormous value to others in moments of crisis.

For the next five years, IsraAID, the humanitarian aid organization I have the privilege of leading, worked with Japanese authorities to develop and implement a program that helped young Japanese children process the trauma of what they had endured and lost. We trained teachers and officials in psychological first aid and trauma-informed care. We integrated this program into kindergartens and the education system, and made the program sustainable so that the Japanese authorities could eventually take over entirely.

This is a model that’s central to IsraAID. Our organization responds quickly and immediately to disasters, and stays for the long-term. We believe not only in recovery, but in building resilience and leaving communities better prepared to handle future challenges. IsraAID is both non-denominational and apolitical — we don’t work uniquely or even very often with Jewish communities; our staff comes from all over the world; and we do not represent the Israeli government or Israel’s foreign policy interests. And still, so much of our added value is Israeli in nature.

We take the best of Israeli expertise — from water solutions and technology to trauma care — and implement it with an Israeli sense of chutzpah. This tenacity and can-do attitude allows us to send a small team of experts into disaster zones before the dust has settled, sometimes less than 24 hours after a disaster has hit. That innovative spirit allows us to adapt to our surroundings, find where and how we can contribute, and fill gaps alongside the larger actors.

There’s a concept I speak about often called post-traumatic growth. Put simply, we see disasters as opportunities. That’s not to say that we sit around waiting for disasters to happen, God forbid. Yet we know that they will. And when disasters strike, we’re not interested in returning to the status quo, but in seeing what challenges and cracks in the foundations the disaster lays bare, and seizing the opportunity to address them. In many ways, that, too, is an Israeli quality.

This is the ethos that informs our work all over the world, even though most of our staff aren’t Israeli themselves. Currently, IsraAID is working in 14 different countries across six continents, with largely local teams helping the world’s most vulnerable communities grow stronger in their moments of crisis.

In war-torn Ukraine, we’re not only supporting displaced Ukrainian communities with essential items like generators, winter clothing, food, and safe drinking water — but we’re thinking about how to leave a lasting difference. Alongside other projects, we’ve identified an opportunity to mainstream psychological care into the medical system. Working with the Office of the First Lady and the Ministry of Health, we’ve trained psychologists in trauma care, who now work in Ukrainian hospitals, supporting doctors and patients in the long term.

In Kenya, where our teams are supporting refugee and host communities through the worst drought in more than 40 years, we’re not only drilling new boreholes that will provide entire communities with access to safe water, but we’re also training local authorities and water committees in maintaining and operating the boreholes to ensure these solutions are sustainable.

In Vanuatu, in the Pacific, global warming is driving an accelerating rate of disasters that destroy people’s homes and livelihoods. During these times of tension, we also see a spike in domestic and gender-based violence, disproportionately affecting women and girls. These moments of crisis have opened up a door to discuss the importance of mental health, allowing us to confront issues of gender-based violence in a traditional society that may not have been open to those messages before.

These are just a few examples, but this concept is part of all of our work. And it is, in many ways, a huge part of the Israeliness that makes us who we are. Our expertise was developed from our challenges as Israelis — water scarcity, post-traumatic stress, conflict resolution, and a constant need for innovation and adaptivity. Now those challenges are what allows us to be of service to communities in crisis.

In an era of rapidly accelerating climate disasters, civil unrest, and political turmoil, now is when we need this concept most.

Yotam Polizer is the CEO of IsraAID.