ELI and Human Trafficking
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The New Immigrant Help One of its greatest accomplishments of 2006, ELI has introduced The Bonim Atid New Immigrant Help Center for Abused Children, sponsored by The Bonim Atid Group of the New York UJA Federation, and The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia. Though child abuse occurs in all strata of Israeli society, it occurs disproportionately among Israel’s immigrant populations from the Former Soviet Union and Ethiopia. While there are many services in Israel designed to help new immigrants with Aliyah and Klitah, (immigration and absorption), often, those immigrants in need of assistance are routed from one bureaucracy to the next. The New Immigrant Help Center was designed specifically to address the mounting concerns about child abuse and neglect in Israel’s immigrant communities. Why do immigrants abuse their children? Immigrants who came to Israel left their lives behind in exchange for the hopes and promises of a free and prosperous life in their new home. When the reality of starting over proves to be wrought with challenges, frustration becomes the overriding emotion. Frustration leads to aggression, often toward children who are the most vulnerable members of the family. For immigrants from the Former Soviet Union, in many cases, they left prestigious jobs and strong familial ties in exchange for menial, lowpaying work and a new scenario as single parents, underemployed, in a land where they are lonely, alienated, and without strong supportive social networks. In addition,there are parental behaviors in certain cultures which are considered to be legitimate child rearing techniques in their native countries but that are considered abusive in the Western world. In different parts of the Former Soviet Union physical abuse is used commonly as a way to punish children. In the hierarchy of an Ethiopian family, children come last. As an example, formula which was provided for malnourished Ethiopian babies when they first came to Israel, was found to be consumed by their parents. Adjacent to ELI’s central office in Tel-Aviv, The New Immigrant Help Center for Abused Children has already become pivotal in helping ELI to identify more cases of abuse, and at-risk children in the new immigrant communities and to begin breaking the all too prevalent cycle of abuse among those populations in Israel from Ethiopia and the Former Soviet Union. ELI is currently in search of funds to expand The Bonim Atid New Immigrant Help Center into new communities in Israel with large concentrations of immigrants such as: Lod, Kiryat Malachi, Kiryat Gat, Bat Yam, Holon, and Rishon L’Tzion. | ||||||||||||||||
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American Friends of ELIn
Development office
Hanita Zimrin, PhD
ELI, the Israel Association
This newsletter is published From Our President.
The family of ELI supporters continues to grow. This newsletter will reach over 650 people. In the past year, more than 60 new donors have joined us in our fight against child abuse in Israel. This is a remarkable achievement considering how difficult it is to bring the issue of child abuse in Israel to people's attention. Many members of the American Jewish Community in the United States do not believe that there can possibly be a significant degree of child abuse in The Jewish state. Unfortunately, there is. There are many reasons for the increase in the prevalence of child abuse - including the struggling economy, unending terrorism, the stresses involved with immigration, and others. We are grateful for the opportunity to work hand in hand with Jewish Communities across the United States toward our common goal of caring for Children in Israel. Bringing this issue to prospective supporters
is a time consuming task.
Every new contact has to be made
individually. Very often the most
effective contacts are initiated by persons
who are already contributors to
The American Friends of ELI. This is
why we need your help in identifying,
and introducing us to, people or institutions
that would be responsive to
ELI's message. Dr. Hanita Zimrin is
our best advocate and she visits the
US three or four times annually. If
there is anyone that you think she
should meet with - anywhere in the
country - please contact Michael
Hersch or me and we will arrange to
get together on her next trip. | |
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What Happens when
Families are shattered. People stop going to work because they have to fight. Others spend their days at home or in bomb shelters because they are afraid to go outside. Tourism stops and our Israeli brothers and sisters are isolated again. We've seen it before. And we know that children so frequently bear the brunt of the impossible situations that their families are asked to endure once again. When parents, under incredible stress, and afraid for their own lives, are forced to devote all of their energies to the most basic survival needs, children get neglected. Parents frequently have no idea how to cope with this stress, and children get abused. And while more abuse and neglect occurs, less attention is devoted to the needs of the children. ELI responds by fortifying its hotline and emergency services in preparation for the deluge of new calls and cases that have already started to surface as a direct result of the current situation. In these times of crisis, ELI needs your help more than ever. Please help ELI to continue to protect and treat Israel's children and youth. We can't do it without you. | |
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ELI's First Public For the first time ever, ELI will hold a public auction in New York to raise $75,000 for the purchase of a new Mobile Therapy Unit, to help ELI continue to fight Child Abuse all over Israel. ELI's first Mobile Therapy Unit has been an incredible tool for ELI to reach those children and families who need help but live too far away. So much so, that the MTU is overcommitted, and there are more children and families whom ELI must reach, but can only do so with the addition of a second Mobile Therapy Unit. The Auction Committee will be chaired by Jennifer Zwiebel in New York. The date of the auction is yet to be determined. For more information, to donate items to be auctioned, or to join the committee, please contact Jennifer at 917-376-6367, or by email at jennifer@jenniferzwiebel.com or Michael Hersch at 215-923-2940, or by email at mhersch@comcast.net. |
