While we all continue to follow the developing situation and struggle to come to terms with our new reality, the ongoing difficulties give our staff a tremendous amount of motivation to keep working hard so we can help mitigate some of the difficulties and challenges families are facing in these trying times.
To date Project Chai financial support has been provided to more than 300 families, from cities including Sderot, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Eilat, Haifa, Tel Aviv, Kfar Maimon, Kiryat Shmona, Ofakim and multiple kibbutzim.
We have also been very busy delivering baby gifts to hospitals and hotels housing evacuees. We are so very grateful for the many suitcases we receive filled with beautiful new baby clothes. Thank you to our donors, Bergen County New Jersey families, Yeshiva of Flatbush families, Jet Set Companies, Cutie Pie Baby Company, and to Jack Forgash and family. Thank you also to the Aish Hatorah seminary girls who helped us with the packing.
You should all know that we have received a lot of positive, appreciative feedback from these gifts. They make the mothers feel very cared about.
We are happy to announce that we recently launched a program in partnership with the Jerusalem municipality facilitating support groups for evacuated mothers placed in Jerusalem hotels, and we’ve already filled our first group and they have begun meeting in Just One Life’s offices on King George Street.
This week we got a referral from a woman named Rivkah, from Sderot, who just gave birth to triplets who need to be in the NICU, while the rest of her children are in a hotel and her husband is fighting in Gaza.
Another client, Sarah from Ashkelon, gave birth to a baby boy and very soon after her husband was wounded in Gaza.
Sadly this is the reality of many families. Dealing with so much overwhelming sorrow and fear, with every aspect of their lives, from the largest to the smallest, impacted by their being displaced and removed from their homes and their usual support systems.
On behalf of the many families who have been calling to thank us for the support of Just One Life, I want to thank our incredible donors in the US who have given us the opportunity to help, financially and emotionally, families whose lives were turned upside down by terrorism and war. In this most difficult time for so many families, it matters so much.
I also want to thank you on behalf of our professional staff. More than ever we feel grateful and humbled to be part of Just One Life and to serve as your emissaries in this critical mission.
עם ישראל חי!!!
Chaya Katzin, MSW is the director of Just one Life, Israel.
