“You saved my life,” said one of these beautiful women who, on 7 October 2023, lost twenty family members, friends, and neighbors in the village due to the Hamas atrocities;
Devastated, broken and destroyed.
They were emotionally completely broken, internally devastated, and no longer able to cope with the grief and loss after the sudden, overwhelming violence of terrorists who brutally murdered twenty people in their village.
Because of the trauma, they felt as if their minds and souls were destroyed.
After a year of deep mourning, these ordinary women and mothers chose life and participated in a six-month therapeutic singing course. No one had to be ashamed of their hopelessness, because everyone was in the same boat. After six months of therapy, they stepped outside again. Some beamed, and despite their shyness, they dared to take the stage, alone and together as a group, in front of a large audience. It touched my heart when I saw them standing there.
Thanks to your donations, these women dare to show themselves again.
All these beautiful things happen in the music room in Kibbutz Yad Mordechai. In April 2024, the music room opened after the largest group of evacuees returned to the kibbutz in March 2024, and today 280 students from ages 2 to 95 are taking lessons there. In addition, all kinds of performances take place. What is more beautiful than hearing from their own mouths how grateful they are for all your help?
Limor, the coordinator in Yad Mordechai, thanks Yad L’Ami:
From the bottom of our hearts, we want to enormously thank Yad L’Ami. At a time when so many people are longing for hope, connection, and joy, your support has given us much more than just help. It has given us a sense of faith, strength, and hope to carry on. It is so wonderful to see how your gifts touch people, bring a smile to their faces, and fill the hearts of the people with joy, light, and a sense of connection. Thank you very much for your partnership, care, and open heart and your choice to be part of our work! ❤️🙏🏻
A thank-you note from Chen from Kibbutz Nir Am:
After the events of 7 October, the evacuation period, and the complex return home, we increasingly see how valuable music is as a means of strengthening the emotional and collective resilience of Nir Am. Thanks to the generous donation from Yad L’Ami, we can further expand this project. For us, music is much more than a lesson or recreation. It is a means of connection, healing, and resilience. It reaches places that words cannot always reach. It releases, calms, connects, and reminds us that even after difficult times we can create moments of joy, life, and hope together.
The underground shelter there has also turned out beautifully; it was completely built by the youth and kibbutz residents themselves. We regularly consult to keep the process on track. Yad L’Ami not only writes a cheque, but we remain involved, help, encourage, and motivate them to get everything in order and maintain it, so that your money is not lost, but spent as well as possible.
Investing in people
Sometimes I walk through buildings and see beautiful, sometimes silver, plaques with the names of donors hanging by the entrance. They don’t say how much was donated. Then I think: Yad L’Ami doesn’t hang signs everywhere indicating how many bricks we have donated and what we have done. We don’t invest in buildings, but in the hearts of people. Our plaques are usually hidden but known to God.
Zikim, a small kibbutz by the sea under the smoke of Gaza, where we have been involved for years, is also calling on us. Young people need meeting places or hangouts; that is normal, but hidden places bring nothing good. This happens when underground shelters stand empty. Here, too, a shelter is being transformed into a music room. After all those difficult COVID years and war, young people have lost their way. Something must be done, and as we have seen in recent years music works wonders for young and old. The place will be completely restored by others, and after that, musical instruments must be provided. Are we going to help? Music reaches places that words cannot always reach.
Follow-up in the therapeutic animal corner
An appeal has been made to the municipality and educational institution. A lot of expansion is still needed and it remains a search for budgets. We help with small projects and involve the kibbutz residents who carry them out. Every kibbutz commemorates the boys’ Bar Mitzvah year at age 13 and, together with their fathers, they spend a year doing projects. That is very good for the parent-child relationship. This group of seven boys with their seven fathers are going to create a picnic area where they can bake flatbreads. See photo. I regularly meet with those responsible for this place and we discuss further; there will be picnic tables and a gardener from the kibbutz will work in the garden for a few hours weekly and check everything. Groups of children who receive an hour of therapy daily through school must clean the animal enclosures, and afterwards there is time to interact with the animals.
The girls’ home
These were difficult years for the boarding school; instead of 48 girls, there are about 28 remaining after the evacuation and the wars. Income decreased due to fewer enrollments, but to keep the house, which is one of the best open, drastic changes had to be made. Therefore, they came under a different foundation that helps them. Things are going well again now. The girls now only receive music therapy from Yad L’Ami.
The end of the school year is approaching. Two schools, Sderot and Sa’ad, respond to the help with animal therapy:
School in Sderot
We would like to express our deepest and most heartfelt gratitude for your generous and invaluable contribution to the therapeutic dog-assisted program for our school students. This contribution, which was made through Yad L’Ami, arrived at an exceptionally meaningful and timely moment. The children of Sderot continue to suffer the emotional impact of the events of 7 October and face complex emotional and psychological challenges on a daily basis (don’t forget the 20 years of constant rocket attacks from Gaza).
The positive impact of this program is evident in every aspect of the students’ lives. Parents have shared, with great emotion, the profound behavioral changes and emotional growth they have witnessed at home. Some families have even decided to adopt a dog as a result of the program’s influence.
Thanks to your help, many students have been granted a transformative experience, received valuable coping tools to face setbacks, and experienced a genuine source of hope and healing. With profound appreciation and immeasurable gratitude,
Arik Azulay, School Principal and Social Worker A.
School in Sa’ad
We want to express our great thanks for your contribution to therapy for the students. Thanks to your generous donation, this year 130 students received individual and group-oriented emotional support: 40 students received therapeutic horseback riding and 90 students had therapy with dogs.
Therapeutic horse riding: Working with a horse gave the children a sense of control, safety, and practice in dealing with emotions. Parents report especially an improvement in self-esteem and a stronger sense of inner control. Some reactions from children: “I didn’t believe that I could ride a horse by myself.” “I feel that it helps me stay calm.”
Dog Therapy: In the dog therapy sessions, we work in small groups of five students. The therapist places strong emphasis on social interaction, the feeling of belonging, connection between the students, and learning to deal with emotions, anger attacks, and anxiety.
“It helped me to overcome my fear.”
“At first, I was afraid to touch dogs, to pet them. I was afraid they would bite me. It helped me overcome this and taught me that I can also overcome other fears.”
“It taught me how to behave around a dog, how to train him, and it gave me self-confidence.”
Kind regards from the therapeutic team and head of the school, Yehezkel Landau
A letter from the parents can be found here.
If children or young people are not helped to process their traumas when they are young, they can carry a heavy burden their whole lives and need to deal with it later in their old age.
Furthermore
*We are involved in a project that raises money for the youth in Mosad Shikma to visit Holocaust survivors at home.
* After a lot of stress from the war, they can leave everything behind for a while. That is our therapy gift of 12 sessions, for a brave couple with a disability, both of whom receive 24/7 assistance. It makes you happy to see them shine like that.
* Then suddenly another phone call comes in: “Can you please help? A family with three children can no longer cope. Just a two-week-old baby and the other two little ones are no longer allowed to go to daycare because it hasn’t been paid.”
*The surf therapy has come to an end. They came out stronger from it: falling, getting up, facing headwinds, and moving on again. They will take that with them into their further lives. We have already written about this in a previous newsletter.
You can be involved in all of these projects. If you want to donate to a specific project, please indicate that with the donation. We will ensure it goes to the right place and provide further explanation in the next newsletter.
Yad L’Ami is very grateful for every gift, big or small. Our relationship with you is also very important to us, as are the beautiful comments sent with the gifts, the prayer, and above all your love for God and His people. We need each other greatly in these days.
Stand firm and counter the sickening antisemitic news and lies about Israel. Jewish people are banned from hotel rooms with the words: ‘Sorry, not for Jews.’ They are smeared, spat on, and abused. A ceasefire means that the other side can continue fighting as usual, while Israel is forced to desist. World leaders think they are taking the place of God, and so on.
Israel will continue to protect its land and people, just as any country does. Peace is not possible when terrorists control the borders. Fortunately, the existence of Israel does not depend on presidents or major world leaders. Israel existed before they existed and will still be there after their departure. Israel is sustained by the faithfulness of God.
Hallelujah! Let everything in us praise the LORD. Honor Him as long as we live. Do not trust in people with power, in a human being in whom there is no salvation. Blessed is he who has the God of Jacob as his help and sets his hope on the LORD, our God. (from Psalm 146).
God’s blessing from all of us, the boards, and everyone who contributes to the foundation.
Ria Doekes-Flier
Addition: On Sunday night, Iran resumed the war; not as reported on the news, ‘Israel and Iran are shelling each other,’ but rather Israel is defending its country and citizens, and millions have been returned to bombardments. This is misleading as matters were taken out of context.
Read the correct news: The people in northern Israel have been under Hezbollah rockets for months. Enough now! From Sunday evening until 12:00 PM on June 8, Iran fired 22 ballistic missiles at Israel, and 2 were launched from Yemen.
Ria Doekes-Flier
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