Dear Naomi,

PS FYI – This is the girl you also have helped with her speech therapy. In fact we are going on Thursday so the therapist will help prepare her for her reading of the Bat Mitzvah speech. Something she could never have dreamed of pulling off without the therapy – thanks to all of you at the Good People Fund!

The kids who live at Beit Hayeled in Israel have not had an easy life. Removed from their families by the courts, each has endured abuse and dysfunction from an early age. It is only when they experience the love and the firm compassion of Yitz Feigenbaum and Irit Zucker, the home’s founders, that they have a chance to blossom. The Good People Fund is always happy to help out when we can and knowing that this young girl will be able to deliver her Bat Mitzvah message with confidence because of the speech therapy we underwrote, makes it all worthwhile. Mazel Tov to all!

Sometimes a request comes to us that is at once so simple and yet profound, with numerous implications.

A morning email from one of our Israeli contacts requested some help for two young Ethiopian women from the Falash Mura community. The young women are part of a program that fosters volunteer work, education and leadership training.

The request?

While still in Ethiopia custom dictated that the Falash Mura were tattooed with the mark of a cross on the forehead and hand. Whether this was to avoid persecution by Christians is up for debate, but several years ago the Chief Rabbi in Israel did accept the aliyah of this group. These two young women have these markings and as a result are ostracized not only by their peers but also by the children in the schools where they volunteer.

Ethiopian absorption in Israel has been a difficult process. Despite the passing of years, the group, for the most part, remains economically challenged and often hold the most menial of jobs.

How much more difficult successful absorption is for these two young women, marked with the sign of the cross? How modest a cost it would be to perhaps change their lives forever by undergoing a relatively simple, though painful process that removes the tattoos?

How could we not?

How true it is when we say that a picture is worth a thousand words…

By the strangest of circumstances we received this picture early this morning from someone we did not know. They were fortunate enough to be part of the volunteer corps who helped the Rabbanit Kapach pack the thousands of Pesach packages she distributes to needy families in Jerusalem. The Good People Fund’s donation provides for a significant portion of the thousands of pounds of matzah that go into those packages.

We always wanted to see what happened at the packings…now we all can! Sort of makes our own holiday preparations pale in comparison!

Our trips to Israel are always jam-packed with meetings and exciting opportunities for the Good People Fund to invest the tzedakah dollars our donors entrust to us.

This latest trip several weeks ago was no different. In the very last hours we spent in Israel we had our traditional sit-down with Phyllis Heimowitz, her daughter Tamar Heimowitz-Richter and Rina Kahan, all deeply involved in the Amuta for the Support of Girlfriends of Fallen IDF Soldiers. Meeting with them always reminds us of the tragic days following the start of the second terror war in 2000. The years that followed saw the Amuta grow as more and more soldiers lost their lives in the ongoing war.

It is 12 years later and much has changed. The Amuta still provides therapy and other support services to these girlfriends and fianc̩es, but today the loss of their soldier is more likely from illness, an accident or even suicide (sadly, a not uncommon occurrence) while on active duty. As we discussed the most recent participants to join the current support group, Phyllis shared the story of A., a sweet, gentle young woman whose beloved died tragically from cancer several months back. As is the case with all of these women, A. was inconsolable Рbelieving that life could not and would not go on.

Phyllis told us a bit about A.’s background and that she was a sweet and very intelligent young woman whose army release stated that she was "exceptional and responsible". More than anything else, A. would love to attend college and become a lawyer. She has the capabilities in every way but one…her family is profoundly poor; her father an invalid and there are just no funds available to make school possible. In fact, in order to even seek scholarship funding the school requires a registration fee which A. is unable to pay.

When we heard the amount needed to pay this fee we knew donors who would agree that this was a great opportunity and arranged to cover the cost. Phyllis was thrilled and reported that A. could not help but cry when she heard the news.

A relatively small investment for the Good People Fund to make, but one which may pay huge dividends in the end…exactly what we love to do.

We just received the following link from Anita Shkedi at INTRA…what a beautiful article and every word of it true… Anita and Giora have developed a truly magical place where miracles are a daily occurrence…

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/a-story-of-true-hope-and-inspiration/

Dear Naomi,

Miriam and Beth

On a recent visit to our programs in Israel we had a very productive conversation with Miriam Avraham and Beth Steinberg from Shutaf, an exciting program which provides inclusion programming for special needs kids. When we learned about their upcoming Pesach camp for teens and how difficult it was to find appropriate programs that would grab the teens’ attention, we immediately thought of INTRA-The Israel National Therapeutic Riding Association and how a day with the horses and the beach and the sea could be fun and therapeutic.

With an introduction to Anita Shkedi at INTRA, Beth and Miriam and their staff were quickly on track to arrange a great day. When we saw the many, many pictures they shot, much like the one we have here, we knew that this was an excellent tzedakah investment. The kids could not have been happier–and neither could we and the Good People Fund donors who made it all possible.