Over the past few months, while our community projects were on holiday, the Esra project teams were involved in continuing assistance on an individual basis. I’d like to share two of these stories with you.

Aviva, an Ethiopian mother of seven from the sewing centers, developed dental problems during her last pregnancy. After the birth, when the problems reached insufferable proportions, she went to her dentist at the kupat cholim who examined her and gave her a quotation of NIS 50,000 for treatment. In desperation she approached Varda, Esra’s sewing teacher. Through a phone call to Debby Lieberman and her wonderful husband Myron, a professor of dentistry, Aviva got an appointment at the Tel Aviv University dental clinic. After examination she was sent to Dr. Steven Gordon, a dentist at “Concept” in Netanya and Prof. Soskolne, a periodontist in Herzliya. These very busy professionals came up with a total sum for her treatment of under NIS 8000. They were not charging Aviva for the difficult work they’d be performing, but only for the cost of materials. It was then that Prof. Lieberman and Prof. Maurice Strauss started a collection among their colleagues to finance this work and already have pledges to cover the total cost. Aviva knows that she will not have to bear the financial burden and has already started treatment. She will soon be pain-free and able to start working again to support her family. The networking within the Esra family is unique and inspiring.

Almog is a teenager at one of our Right Track Centers which are run by the Kidum Noar department of the Netanya municipality together with Esra. A year ago Almog dropped out of school and stopped coming to the centers. The social workers of Kidum Noar eventually managed to get him back into the center and when the end of the year arrived and he realized he wouldn’t be accepted at high school with his friends, he finally asked for help from the social workers. They approached us and although we don’t run our learning programs during the holidays, after much discussion with the Kidum Noar workers, we decided that if Almog would prove his seriousness, we would give him a chance and help him catch up with his studies so that he could apply for the high school he wanted. Almog did wonders. He was waiting at the door for the teacher before every lesson, he did his homework and he caught up on a lot of the year’s work. The day before school started we received a very excited phone call saying that he had been accepted into the school. Almog is a different child now. He knows that he has support behind him, he knows people care for him as a person and not another case number, he knows that he has to now prove himself to us and to Kidum Noar – and he’s taken the responsibility of leaving the streets. Where would he be without the open communication of Esra and our partners within the projects?

The Esra projects reach out to the communities that need us. If you’re interested in volunteering with any of our projects, or in visiting the projects to see what we’re doing, please contact the office for more information – 09 950 8371