Eli Amir

Almost all of the pupils in our villages belong to the 26% of Israeli children who live below the poverty line. Many suffer from abuse and neglect as well as economic deprivation and the ongoing economic recession in Israel is only making their plight worse.

In this situation the role of Youth Aliyah is all the more vital. While the mainstream education system, like all the public sector in Israel, is facing a budgetary crisis with thousands of teachers being fired, Youth Aliyah thanks to its friends in Israel and worldwide has been able to offer its children more. The physical infrastructure has been enhanced over the past year with new classrooms and dormitories as well as facilities for extra curricular activities.

Most importantly our students are receiving many more hours of enrichment activities in "one-on-one" situations or small groups. This is part of Youth Aliyah’s new approach as we take in more and more severely disadvantaged children. The Branco-Weiss program in which students learn in small groups in the afternoons has improved scholastic results. Our very diverse range of therapy options from art, music and drama to the pet program and Alexander technique have reduced behavioral problems. Our biggest regret is that we do not have the budget to provide such opportunities for more children at risk.

Your increased support is now more vital than ever in these difficult economic times if we are to maintain educational enrichment programs and enhance the welfare needs of the children in our care. In particular, we want to provide them with a range of summer programs which will offer them a warm, supportive and educational environment during the two-month summer vacation.

These programs, which their parents would not be able to provide, include specialist summer camps in sport, archeology, science, computers, horseback riding and other subjects as well as leadership programs and preparatory camps for new students.

Tamuz 5763 - July 2003