August 04, 2008

A Little Bit of Help Can Make All of the Difference

From time to time we learn of a situation where a little bit of help can make a truly profound difference in someone’s life or in the life of an entire family. Such was the case when we heard from Avshalom Beni, founder of HAMA, and one of Israel’s best when it comes to animal-assisted therapy. In the course of his work Avshalom often encounters such situations, and so he was writing recently to tell us about the G. family. The husband and wife in this Ethiopian family arrived in Israel several years ago as teens and since that time married and started a family which now includes four children, the oldest of whom is 13. Both parents work for minimum wages as caretakers in Israeli hospitals. For this work they receive no benefits of any kind and no job security whatsoever. They are dedicated, highly intelligent workers, so proud that they would never apply for any public assistance no matter what the family situation.

Their 13 year old daughter recently celebrated her Bat Mitzvah and has one dream that has yet to come true-a computer! How much of a difference a computer could make for this special family.

Avshalom asked if there was any way we could possibly provide the laptop computer, a printer and ten lessons for the family? The cost? About $1600. With some help from recent religious schools’ donations, this young girl and her family will receive their computer and lessons and who can imagine what other worlds will open up for them with this gift?