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alienor_smTO: FEDERATION PRESIDENTS AND EXECUTIVES
FROM: JUDGE ELLEN M. HELLER
STEVE SCHWAGER
DATE: JULY 17, 2006
RE: RESPONSE TO THE ISRAEL EMERGENCY
UJC, JAFI, JDC are fully coordinating their activities and responses to the current crisis in Israel. Each organization is utilizing its particular expertise to ensure that those most affected by the conflict are being provided hope and contact with the greater Jewish world.
Literally overnight the entire northern region of the country has become a conflict zone, with the area as far south as Tel Aviv now under threat. Working in close partnership with the Government of Israel, JDC is poised to meet the urgent needs which have emerged as a result of the current security emergency. By building on existing programs, partnerships, and accrued expertise, JDC is positioned to help ensure that many of the most vulnerable Israelis receive appropriate care and support and to mediate the full-scale impact of the emergency.
The most critical issue is funding to run the programs. Accordingly, we have been supplying UJC with funding requests to meet these emerging programmatic needs. The professional staff at several Federations have called or e-mailed us directly asking for programmatic material to be utilized in their own local campaigns. Rather then respond on an ad hoc basis we have decided to share with you the following material about our activities already launched – and activities that will be launched when funds are provided.
1. JDC-Israel Emergency Activities Already Launched
JDC is preparing emergency activity kits for use by youth volunteers from the AMEN program in shelters in northern Israel. Trained volunteers will entertain and engage children who are spending their days and nights in shelters and safe rooms. This project is being run in partnership with the Ministry of Education. The Modi’in Municipality has donated space and is working with local AMEN volunteers to prepare and package kits which will be delivered to the north by volunteers from the Yad Sarah organization.
In partnership with the Home Front Command of the IDF and the National Commissioner on Disability at the Ministry of Justice, JDC is working to revise and update emergency briefing materials and procedures originally prepared during the Gulf War crisis. This is a critical activity as the disabled are now confined to their apartments and have limited contact with the outside world. These procedures will insure that rescue workers will know where the disabled are located in the event of an emergency or missile attack. This program was launched at 10:00 a.m. this morning.
ESHEL is purchasing and assembling 10,000 personal emergency kits for elderly served by the network of Day Centers in northern Israel now closed by order of the Home Front Command. Purchase and assembly are being coordinated in Jerusalem as stores and suppliers in the north are closed due to the emergency situation. The kits contain emergency supplies including transistor radios that operate in the bomb shelters.
2. Proposed JDC Responses to the Situation in Israel
Below is a range of Emergency Programs for vulnerable communities if funding is available in those locations most affected by the emerging security situation.
KEEP THE CHILDREN SAFE
The reality in Israel has shifted. Where during the Intifada, children were kept safe through a massive effort to bring them together in secure areas and provide them with meaningful summer camp and after school activities, this strategy is no longer wise. With the threat now coming from airborne missiles and rockets, the Government of Israel and the IDF have given orders to close camps and educational programs in the north and around Gaza – and to prevent people from congregating in large groups. Instead, families are being instructed to keep children at home and in or near shelters. While this helps guarantee the youngsters physical security, it can leave them feeling isolated and vulnerable. JDC seeks to address these challenges with the following programs.
1) AMEN – Volunteers Run Activities for Children in Shelters
AMEN youth volunteers are in place and prepared to entertain and engage children not able to leave their towns and who are spending their days in shelters. Youth will keep children occupied and distracted from this potentially traumatic experience by using game kits created and approved by the Ministry of Education. These include board games, educational card games, and art projects etc. Programming can begin as soon as kits are purchased. Kits costs $200 for 50 children. 10,000 kits are needed in total.
The cost for 500,000 children (10,000 kits) is $2,000,000
2) AMEN – Emergency Training for Youth Volunteers
More AMEN youth volunteers are needed in the north of Israel. A rapid training and orientation program has been designed and volunteers can be put in place very quickly to assist in three additional locations. These volunteers will be deployed to work as part of the emergency service network, including providing first aid, and will receive fire department training.
Cost – $10,000 per location
3) Community Centers – Emergency Outreach Programs
While the Government of Israel has not instructed the civilian population from northern Israel to evacuate to the center of the country, many families have made the decision to do so on their own. For their children, the summer experience has gone from fun in the sun to dislocation and despair. Yet, these youngsters can be helped to enjoy the rest of the summer if we act quickly to partner with the Israel Association of Community Centers to reach out and identify them and run safe and fun programs in their new temporary home towns.
Cost - $100 per child for one week of activities x 15,000 youngsters
4) Emergency Psychological Support for Children and Families in Shelters
As part of the highly successful UJC Israel Emergency Campaign, Israel's school-based psychological services were upgraded and adapted to help children and their families better meet crises situations. Building on this strength, JDC now proposes using the highly trained "psychological reserve forces" of the Ministry of Education to work with youngsters and their families in shelters across northern Israel during this summer of crisis.
Need - 30 Counselors and Psychologists for the Remainder of the Summer
5) A Friend to the Family
Families of children with special needs can be stretched to the breaking point during times of emergency. The Friend to the Family Program was designed and launched during the recent Intifada to bring trained volunteers into these homes to assist parents and families in coping with the additional challenges brought on by the deteriorating security situation. JDC has now been asked to launch this initiative as soon as possible in eight locations in the north: Ma'alot, Ma'alot-Tarshisha, Ir HaCarmel, Migdal Ha'emek, Nazareth, with three additional locations to be determined. The program can be expanded to include other sites already in the line of fire and/or which become part of the conflict zone in the future.
Cost - $10,500 for each existing location (5) and $11,833 for each new location (3) for a period of three months.
6) Home on Wheels
With children throughout the north of Israel now confined to shelters and safe rooms, those with severe physical disabilities are in a particularly difficult situation. Their limited mobility and physical challenges make taking part in "regular" emergency activities highly problematic. JDC proposes implementing the Home on Wheels initiative which will serve these children and youth from locations throughout northern Israel. The program can be expanded to serve additional children/youth if funds become available. Locations in the north: Bustan Hagalil (near Acco/Nahariya).
Cost - $35,000 monthly for 70 children/youth
7) Preparation for Life: Mechina L'Chaim
During normal times, the Mechina L'Chaim residential program prepares physically disabled, blind and visually impaired youth for independent adult life. As a result of the security situation, these youngsters have been evacuated from their group homes in Bustan Hagalil (near Acco/Nahariya) and in Nahariya; all regular activities have been suspended. JDC seeks to continue programming in a safe location in central Israel and to provide necessary transportation services.
Cost - $35,000 for three months for activities in a safe site
VULNERABLE POPULATIONS
When crisis hits, the vulnerable suffer most. This is the harsh reality now facing many Israelis across the north of Israel. Yet, they can be helped with a range of alternative services designed to deliver assistance during the security emergency.
A. Elderly
1. Emergency Supportive Communities for the Elderly
Twenty-Five Supportive Communities in affected areas are already working with local elderly to mediate the impact of the sudden and alarming downturn in the security situation. They are prepared to further extend services to help members cope with the challenges of the emergency as soon as funds become available. Expanded services will include:
Basic home equipment for use in time of emergency (e.g. emergency lights, television etc);
Transportation assistance to increase members' mobility
Seminars on "Coping in Times of Emergency"
A part-time social worker for each community to provide elderly with additional support
Cost – $50,000 to bring these services to one existing supportive community
2. Urgent Interim Assistance for Day Center Clients
By order of the Home Front Command, Day Care Centers for the elderly within missile range have now been closed. Urgent assistance for these clients who depend on regularly attending day care centers for their basic needs must be addressed. This includes additional manpower to provide meals on wheels and urgently-needed medications, as well as other social assistance to elderly at home; it also assures that all residential shelters servicing this population are equipped with essential supplies.
Cost - an average of $100 per person per month for 10,000 elderly. The need to further extend these services will be monitored as the situation continues to unfold.
3. Emergency Assistance through Day Centers for the Elderly
Once twenty day centers for the elderly in affected areas are allowed to reopen, they will require an Emergency Basket of Services in order to help clients deal with the trauma and challenges already wrought by the unfolding security emergency. Each Center will provide assistance according to local needs. Services will include:
Two social worker positions at each day center to support elderly through their anxieties
Funding for non-members to attend and benefit from the center's supportive environment
Meals on wheels for those elderly who cannot attend due to the security situation and additional meals for non-members
Seminars on "Coping in Times of Emergency" for both members and other local elderly
Transportation assistance to and from hospitals
Day Center telephone hotline to provide round the clock assistance
Average cost of basket of services per day center – $100,000
B. People with Disabilities
1. Emergency Accessible Communities for the Disabled
JDC's Accessible Communities – which bring professionals and volunteers to define and meet the local needs of disabled citizens – will provide emergency assistance to people with disabilities in the affected areas. The range of assistance will be defined based on local needs and will be provided for five months to ten communities in northern Israel.
Average cost - $15,000 to bring these services to one accessible community
2. Evacuation Assistance
Of the approximately 50,000 people with disabilities in northern Israel, 5,000 are severely disabled. Should the security situation escalate welfare authorities may choose to evacuate hundreds of people with disabilities to hostels for the disabled and other suitable frameworks in the center of the country. In this event, JDC will offer a range of assistance such as accessible transport, volunteer activation, equipment and an information hotline for people with disabilities and their families.
Cost - Resources to be allocated will depend on magnitude of the operation, but no less than $25,000
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If you have questions or need further information on any of these programs, please feel free to write me.
Let us all pray that the war ends quickly, our soldiers are freed and peace comes to the Middle East.
