This week, Israel’s public spaces are lit with candles in windows, on doorsteps, in shopping malls and in city squares. Winter days, when all we have to do is warm up internally, our communities turn on the outdoor fixtures. One would think we would need a safe haven from darkness and cold. But we take it for granted that inside our homes there is meekness and warmth, that the meekness we create – miracles – will have to manifest outside.
In her role in Tenufa Bakehila – Building Hope, Irit paints with families suffering from housing poverty, Israel’s hidden housing crisis. While Israel’s media and social activists grapple with the so-called “housing crisis,” Tenufa Bakehila – Building Hope addresses the housing crisis. poverty that afflicts thousands of Israeli families. These families see Christmas lights as less ironic and more painful. Their houses are dark and in very poor condition. Other seniors bathe in bloodless water in winter, Holocaust survivors dragging buckets of water into damaged bathrooms so they can flush the toilet. Young children sleep, in danger, next to exposed electrical outlets and power cords.
Housing poverty affects tens of thousands in Israel and Tenufa
Bakehila is the only organization providing large-scale aid. This Hanukah crusade, Bring the Light Home through Tenufa Bakehila raises awareness of the hidden housing crisis: the unsustainable housing poverty afflicting families and youth in need. Learn more and the crusade
Irit tells the story of Meital, a young teenager who lives with her grandmother and 4 siblings in a small apartment in Jerusalem. Meital and his siblings never invite their friends home. How can they do it when the walls are riddled with mold, when the bathroom door does not close completely. At night, Meital stays awake searching the ceiling of the living room she stores with two other younger brothers. The concrete, cracked for years, gave way several months ago. Pieces of concrete fell to the ground, exposing the steel beams of the building’s structure. However, the living room was a luxury compared to his grandmother’s bedroom. The old woman slept on an enclosed porch so that the younger young people could only sleep in the bedroom of the apartment.
The maintenance that Tenufa Bakehila provided for Meital and his circle of relatives lit up their home and their lives. The NGO’s repair team reworked the apartment to create one more bedroom. They broke a wall, redirected plumbing and electricity, and created a bedroom for Meital, so she can be just a young woman in intimacy with her brothers. The repair team treated the mold, fixed ceilings and walls (no more steel beams), and fixed the bathroom and its door. Tenufa Bakehila is helping many young people like Meital every year, many more still want help. Join their life-changing work, make a donation to Bring the Light Home. The donations will fund essential maintenance for the homes of young people suffering from poverty.
Tenufa Bakehila is Israel’s largest housing repair organization and the only one that deals with the source and has an effect on housing poverty. “We work in the most intimate area of the family,” Irit says. “Our groups work on an all-day basis for several days. “When they treat an apartment for mold, they fix the damaged walls, paint, enter each and every room. They notice the teenager who is in bed all day, a silent deserter suffering from depression. They notice the pills being placed on a counter because a Holocaust survivor wants help with her medication. They would possibly arrive early in the morning to update a rotten kitchen and notice an 11-year-old boy folding a bed and pajamas in the kitchen, his “bedroom. “”
“Repairing space is very important for a family’s prosperity,” Irit says. “But we know that deterioration is a symptom of crisis or challenge, so we integrate social assistance as part of reparations. “It needs and provides direct help to families. She is smart at crisis assessment and individualization of facilities. Its goal is twofold: to fill in gaps in families’ existing social facilities and to help families become aware of their own desires and gain the resources and skills to meet with them.
Irit explains that some of the most tragic cases are also the ones with the greatest potential. Recently, he helped a circle of relatives with five young children, adding nine-year-old Arik who has cognitive and hearing impairments. When Arik was younger, he suffered from frustration and anger. It destroyed furniture, broke down doors, broke windows. Their parents had no power to care for their other children, barely enough power to paint, and no cash to fix the damage to their home. While Tenufa Bakehila’s solution team installed doors in bathrooms and bedrooms, Irit pleaded with the circle of relatives.
As the team repaired the windows, Irit connected the circle of family members with resources to help them rebuild and thrive.
Soon after, Arik enrolled in an after-school program that allowed his mother to spend time with the other children, sit for a few quiet minutes and recharge their batteries. Irit organized a training to help parents learn about the skills of raising a child with
Special needs. She put them in touch with an organization and an organization that provides beds because the young people slept on the floor. Tenufa Bakehila’s permanent staff arranged the physical layout of the house, Irit replaced depression with power and hope, and the circle of relatives began a path to a healthy and disgustingly wealthy home.
Tenufa Bakehila maintains more than 500 dilapidated homes a year, bringing peace of mind to more than 2000 Israelis of all ages: children, the elderly, Holocaust survivors, single-parent families, the disabled and sick, immigrants and others in need. Tenufa Bakehila operates 8 pro arranges crews and works with 20 municipalities to serve the neediest families.
Thousands of young people still desperately need! Tenufa Bakehila calls on lovers of solid and bright homes to bring kindness to others. This Hanukkah, make a donation to bring light home to the thousands of young Israelis who still suffer from housing poverty.
For more information and to make a donation, visit tenufa. org or call 972-2-679-3491. Donations can also be mailed to Tenufa Bakehila – Building Hope, Rashba 15, Jerusalem or online here
&