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NEWSLETTER SPRING 2002
A VOLUNTARY SOLUTION
Miri and Tzvi Cohen (not their real names) have six children, but Ari, a nine-year-old with Down Syndrome, keeps their hands full most of the time. That's why the Cohens, who live in the Gush Etzion community of Elazar, count on Shalva. The Jerusalem respite center provides daily, after-school activities for physically and mentally disabled youngsters, freeing parents to spend precious time with their other children. So when Israeli's security situation made it almost impossible for children from Efrat and Gush Etzion to reach the Jerusalem center, the Cohens faced a serious crisis. Within weeks, however, the solution came from 10th and 11th graders at the Neveh Channah High School for Girls, who work at Shalva as part of the school's volunteering program.
"The girls realized that these families desperately needed Shalva's services," says Sharon Brandt, who coordinates Neveh Channah's volunteering project. "So they approached Shalva director Kalman Samuels and proposed that if he would open a satellite center in Gush Etzion, they would provide all necessary volunteers." Samuels agreed to fund a Shalva branch and the Gush Etzion Regional Council made an apartment available for the center. The young women quickly got to work painting, decorating and furnishing - and within weeks, Shalva got its start in Gush Etzion.
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Neveh Channah students putting
the finishing touches on the
regional Shava Center |
"We would never have been able to consider opening the satellite center without the initiative and motivation of Sharon Brandt and the Neveh Channah students," acknowledges Kalman Samuels.
Before embarking on their volunteer work, the young women took part in a training seminar conducted by OTS's Susan Resnick School of Social Work to familiarize them with the requirements and sensitivities of special needs children. "Our guest speaker was the mother of a child with Down Syndrome, who described how the entire family is affected when a volunteer works with its disabled member," notes Sharon Brandt. "She emphasized the importance of trust in the relationship, stressing that it is essential for a volunteer to keep appointments and always take the child's family into account."
The new center operates three times a week and serves seven to 16-year-olds, most with Down Syndrome, from Efrat, Kiryat Arba, Elazar, Beitar and Carmei Zur and other local communities. At two o'clock, vans bring the children to Shalva, where they enjoy a variety of activities -- sports, cooking, gardening, music and art -- and receive dinner before the vans take them home at six. "The number of children ranges from nine to 11 on any given day," explains Brandt. "We have 30 Neveh Channah girls rotating throughout the week so that each child has a volunteer at his or her side the entire time they are at Shalva."
"I try to make the most out of every minute," says Ayelet Yisraeli, 16, who volunteers at Shalva in addition to working as a youth group leader and assisting a hearing-impaired girl. Ayelet, who is thinking about a career in special education, says her volunteering experiences have taught her "how to deal with a lot of different situations." Agrees Kalman Samuels, "In addition to doing an act of chessed and helping others, working with special-needs children gives our volunteers important skills that will help them throughout the years -- professionally, in the home and in the community."
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Torah Stone
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