Israel Emergency Campaign

Activity Report: August 24, 2006

Below are some updated highlights of the activities implemented by UJC, JAFI and JDC.

Children

Overnight summer camps: about 37,000 children from northern towns and settlements in the confrontation who enjoyed 5 days of summer camp during the confrontation, an additional 7000 children continued to participate in

5 day summer camps in the south and center of Israel. The JAFI camps were operated in partnership with the Ministry of Education. 

Daily and Weekly Camps:  Jewish, Arab and Druze children continued to participated in these activities.  In coordination with the Ministry of Education, JDC continued to implemented one-day summer camps in some locations for children and youth. JAFI coordinated with the Ministry of Education to organize daily summer activities and one-day tours for kids in the Arab Sector.

Community Center – Emergency Outreach Programs: Local community centers continued to provide special activities for children in the north. In addition, the Israel Association of the Community Centers continued to run daily summer camps for children from the north. Over 50,000 children participated in these activities.

Emergency Psychological Support: Professional psychological support for children and families in shelters and evacuation sites was carried out in several locations, serving over 3500 kids and parents

 The organizations of the Israel Coalition of Trauma ( ITC) have been mapping psychological needs while supplying "first aid" psychological services where needed.

Youth in Protection Facilities: Youth that are in youth protection authority facilities, received additional personnel for treating youth at risk in residential facilities in the north. 7 residential facilities were supported with additional personnel, assisting them through this hard period.

Disabled Children: Three programs were implemented in order to assist disabled children and their families, both physically and psychologically in all sectors of the community.

Assistance in the home and by hot-line was served by volunteers and professionals to 631 children in 17 locations.

Special camps for children with special needs were arranged for a total of 856 children in 9 locations.

Evacuation assistance and related activities such as respite and daily fun activities for children with disabilities were reached out to 182 children in 34 locations.

New Immigrants (Olim)

JAFI re-located about 300 families from the Safed absorption center to absorption centers in the center of Israel and reached out to assist all olim particularly those from Ethiopia, who re-located from absorption centers in the north. In addition, over 3,100 immigrants received emergency care within the absorption centers that continued to operate in the north.

ENP:  Ethiopian-Israeli SPACE participants from Afula and Kiryat Bialik were participated in JAFI summer camps.

Children from Absorption Centers:  Some new immigrant children have suffered badly the trauma of the war and others from the additional trauma of separation from their parents. JAFI has established a team to look into the situation. The identity of families visited in absorption centers and their immediate needs are reported daily to the team charged with providing solutions. 

Absorption Centers:  14 absorption centers have been damaged. Much of the damage is structural and many of the center offices and classrooms were badly hit. Some residents were re-located. Construction and repair began immediately at the damaged centers.

Special Needs

The Elderly:  The JDC implemented a range of services for the war affected elderly. Services include: meals at home to 7,259 recipients, telephone check-ins to 11,700, emergency light fixtures for 3,565 and special emergency equipment to 13,795 elderly. As many caregivers either fled or were called up by the IDF, 200 substitute emergency staff were funded through the Israel Crisis Fund. Various respite programs are being provided to over 5,099 elderly some in cooperation with the government and some in cooperation with Amigur. In addition, JDC also provides transportation for meals, dry goods and caregivers to over 5,840 recipients. 100 sets of safety gear for employees serving the elderly have been allocated as well as 180 wheel chairs.

The Disabled: As many as 1735 disabled persons have received emergency assistance though reinforced accessible community network to provide additional support for those in the conflict zone. There were also camps for over 856 children with physical disabilities outside of the conflict area.  Evacuation assistance was provided for around 790 persons in 20 locations and in cooperation with an NGO, over 1500 people with disabilities have been provided with a hotline service.  1200 disabled Israelis and their families have received 5 nights of respite with accessible transportation and recreational activities.  Disabled children have been included in the camp activities.

Respite Days:  The need for respite for all the population was immense. All sectors of the population were in great need and the different organizations were putting endless effort into supplying respite care to as many people as possible. The first beneficiaries of respite were the most vulnerable population i.e. Children and youth and their families (2400), Elderly (5,099) and Disabled adults and children (1,540).

Shelters 
In coordination with the Home Front Command, JAFI supplied televisions, air-conditioners, emergency light fixtures, and portable toilets to bomb shelters in the north. The final number of appliances that were installed in shelters:

• 1652 air-conditioners
• 1428 televisions
• 2537 emergency light fixtures
• 50 portable toilets
• 15 Water pumps

JAFI also assisted in the renovation of 1000 bomb shelters in Amigour public housing.  Although it has no legal responsibility to do so, the company has renovated 500 bomb shelters in apartment buildings where most of the apartments are privately owned and updated 390 bomb shelters in Amigour-owned buildings in Acco, Shlomi and Safed.

JAFI also supplied volunteers with helmets and protection equipment such as bullet proof vests.

School Readiness Program

JAFI, JDC and the Ministry of Education have prepared a week summer camp for all sectors of the population to take place during the last week of the summer vacation. This program is in order to prepare 100,000 children for the new school year and to provide them the support they need in order to return to the school year routine.