The families and individuals we support usually suffer from debilitating social or medical problems or family history.

We support widows, elderly widows without children, young widows with large families, widowers with families, divorced or separated women who have to provide for their own children.

We also support people with any severe or chronic illness that prevents them from normally functioning such as psychiatric disorders, developmental disorders or mental retardation, severe cardiac conditions, cancer, muscular dystrophy, severe joint disease, etc.

We also support families with special needs children suffering from ADHD, Down’s syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy and premature or very low birth weight babies (some weighing as low as a pound at birth).  These families need to deal with a host of exhausting medical issues.  We also support families with multiple births (quadruplets, quintuplets).

The Story of Esther

Esther comes from a very poor family and grew up in boarding schools and institutions.  When she was very young, 18 years old, a match was suggested to her and she was happy and eager to have her own family after a traumatic childhood and adolescence.  She wanted to build a home.

Alas, two or three years after their wedding, she saw that her husband had behavior problems.  She didn’t know how to deal with it.  She didn’t have a supportive family where she could come back and deal with her problems.  And before she understood how severe the situation was, she’d already had three children.  Within ten years, the couple had seven children.

Then, the husband was diagnosed with schizophrenia and started abusing her and their children.  He is recognized by Bituach Leumi (National Insurance of Israel) as a 100% psychiatric invalid and is getting minimal payments because he is unable to work.

She is tremendously devoted to her children.  Two of the children are suffering from attention deficit disorders, which makes her life more complicated.  Whenever she has a little time, she tries to find cleaning jobs.  Three years ago, the physical violence became so unbearable that she had to get a restraining order against her husband.   Until today, they are not divorced, but they are living separately.  Esther is single-handedly taking care of all her family’s needs.  Without our support, the family would definitely fall apart.

Family A – Jerusalem

It was a typical family with seven children.  The father used to work for years in the printing industry as a senior professional.  Some seven years ago, he started to show changes in his personality and was mistakenly treated for psychiatric illness.  Only after two more years, was he finally diagnosed with brain cancer.

So he started radiation treatment and chemotherapy, very late.  Meanwhile, he was fired from work.  The bills started to pile in, and the mortgage of the house gathered interest.

His wife is a very gentle person, and for a long time she had a hard time adjusting herself to the sickness of her husband and the new economic situation.  The biggest problem is that she was ashamed to tell the story and to ask for help.

When she turned to us, the situation was already catastrophic.  We helped them a few times in order that they shouldn’t be forced out of their home.

They had a huge water bill.  We came to an understanding with the water company who gave us a program in order to pay them back.  Their mortgage bills rose and rose, so they had an enormous debt of 125,000 shekel to another bank.  Because we paid it and they realized we were a tzedaka organization, we only had to pay a fifth of that amount to erase the whole debt.

Family B – Kiryat Ye’arim

It’s a family with ten children.  Two are already married.  The father is a teacher by profession and worked all his life, in a full-time job and more, to make ends meet.  He was successful in providing for his family without ever asking for tzedaka from anyone.  Three years ago, he contracted a rare joint disease named osteopoikilosis, a sort of multiple sclerosis of the joints where his bones are being eaten away.  Today he is in a wheelchair, unable to teach in front of a class.  His condition still isn’t recognized by Bituach Leumi so they give him no assistance.  He’s living on an extremely low income.  He still has some private lessons that he gives from the home.  He has to take special medication that he can’t afford and isn’t covered by his insurance.  He is so poor, he can’t even invite his married children to come to him for a Shabbos.