January 5, 2009

Life in Sderot … and More

An email this morning from our contacts in Sderot brought the following brief description of what life has been like over the past several days (as well as before):

…As for us in Sderot: Schools, kindergartens and nurseries are all closed. In addition, all businesses are closed except for the local supermarkets. Many residents have left the town because they find it very hard to be confined to their homes all day long.

To help Sderot’s residents, "Reut" Sderot (a local organization with whom we work) organizes many different activities. Six shelters are running five days a week providing several different activities, from arts and crafts, movies and sports to actual trauma therapy. They are also providing ongoing respites to get adults and children out of the city. Over the past several weeks kids have gone to amusement parks, plays, museums and other pleasurable activities to keep them occupied and away from the daily danger, if only for brief periods. In addition, just this past weekend, 30 families were sent to several different locations throughout the country with housing and transportation costs covered by the organization.

With funds sent to us by donors who want to help out during this crisis, we are going to provide for some of these programs with the hope that they will soon not be necessary.

Related to the ongoing war in that area of Israel was an email I received a few days ago from an old friend with whom we did some relief work after September 11, 2001. Richard Smith came to New York City only a few days after the bombings and it was only a short time after that that we were introduced to him as a possible contact to help with determining how we could provide whatever was needed during those dark days. Richard became our "eyes and ears" on the scene and a friendship evolved. I knew that after Richard returned home to Virginia he had made many trips to Israel, particularly to the area around the Gaza border. His email which arrived a few days ago included a link to a very powerful video on YouTube. Dana, the young woman who speaks in the video, lives near Sderot and her words and her demeanor are extraordinarily powerful. If you want to get an idea of what life was like prior to the current war, click on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kroyMfkoRHA

We think the piece says a great deal on many different levels…