Local children doing homework at Hefzibah community center  

For many years the Ministry of Defense has sponsored volunteers who visit IDF bereaved families. The emphasis is on the families of soldiers who fell many years ago: the parents of soldiers who fell in the 1960s or the 1970s are now elderly, often alone, and have possibly lost other children, too, as well as family members and friends. They are lonely and infirm, and welcome the friendship, encouragement and company the volunteers offer them. Women who lost their soldier husbands when they were young and have had to raise their children alone also welcome the visits from volunteers.

Hefzibah, an area of Netanya, was settled almost entirely by Ethiopians. The odds against the success of settling a group of new immigrants there were overwhelming: problems of language, culture, customs and background loomed over them, and the area quickly turned into a slum marked by violence, disorder and other social problems. Some years ago, three young residents of Hefzibah completed their army service, returned home, and realized that something had to be done. They began their efforts to change and improve their environment by sweeping the streets, and this modest beginning has blossomed into a widespread and ever-growing program of change and development which is turning around the lives of the residents.

How are these two projects connected and intertwined, and how can some good come from the connection? The groups of Ministry of Defense volunteers are coordinated by social workers, and each group meets with its coordinator once a month to discuss the visits; everyone gets a chance to make suggestions and offer advice, and often a problem can be solved in this warm and supportive atmosphere.

A community center has been established in Hefzibah, and ESRA, through its “Students Build a Neighborhood” project, is heavily involved in the center’s activities. Extra lessons, dance groups, music lessons, enrichment programs and sporting activities draw the children to the center, and are giving them the boost they need to help them to integrate, develop and succeed.

When our Ministry of Defense coordinator, Irit, heard about ESRA's role in Hefzibah, she expressed interest in visiting there, together with two other social workers, Tamar and Ruthy. They felt that they could learn something from this project. There are a number of bereaved families in Hefzibah who could be helped by visits from volunteers, but because of the barriers caused by differences of language and Ethiopian culture and customs, the local population needs to become involved. Avi and the other young men who run the community center could open the door to this cooperation and lead the way to assisting and supporting these bereaved families. I am certain that those three social workers are now weighing up the ways and means to implement a program based on what they saw at the community center.

On April 26 2010 our group held its monthly meeting at the center, and Avi painted a vivid picture of how the area used to be, and how it was once called Harlem, with all the negative connotations of that name. He described the changes that have taken place, and he divided us into two groups and took us to see the student apartments financed by ESRA. In the apartment I visited, I met a young law student from the north of the country and saw his four pupils seated around a table, doing their homework. They were deeply immersed in their work, but offered us wide, shy smiles and then went back to what they were doing. Another student introduced us to the girls she coaches and they, too, were eager to return to their work.  Apart from the homework program, the children are able to attend afternoon classes at the community center, and their grades are improving. I cannot imagine how these children would be able to keep up without this help.

Our visit to the community center left a deep impression on everyone. This is what the Ministry of Defense social workers wrote after the visit: “It was an amazing experience! I want to thank you once again. What a blessed enterprise and what great people. It is so good to see that there are people with such values in our country. The meeting was also very important for members of our office team, who want to make contact with the Ethiopian community, but are still in the process of learning how to do so.”

That made me think about the connection between our volunteering work with bereaved families and the work that ESRA does for the community; about how we can learn from the people we help, and how they can learn from us; and about how the bottom line is to make a contribution in whatever field suits your capabilities. Go out and find it, and you're not only helping the community, you're also growing and finding fulfillment.