18 new kibbutzim have joined the Program and about 100 new families will accommodate there by the end of the year.
It is hard to imagine how but in this difficult situation around the world we have welcomed not only new olims but also our dear friends from C4I since the beginning of 2022. Recently we had the pleasant visit of Marie-Louise from Austria, Anemone from Germany, and Alina from Ukraine. These meetings give us the strength to go on. Despite our praying for peace, the conflict doesn’t stop. Many people from different countries of former Soviet Union are literally trying to “take the last train” and go to Israel leaving behind everything that was in their past life. Some of them contact us during a trip to Israel, sitting on a bus, train or plane, crossing the border, etc. Others call us from Israel in the nick of time, and we receive these calls daily.
This is the unusual practice for us, because we are used to keeping eye on a family from the moment of its making decision about aliyah to the moment of its arrival in kibbutz. In April, we thought we managed with this challenge but the huge wave of olims is continuing to come. While families who joined “First Home in the Homeland” in early March are preparing for their final Hebrew exam, dozens of families are just waiting for their first meeting with kibbutz in July and August.
By the way, we have already accepted about 100 families into our program. They will join us in 6 different regions from July to November 2022: Ramat HaNegev, Eshkol and Shaar HaNegev in the South, Jezreel Valley, Jordan Valley and Shomron in the North. Among them, we are expecting many families with 3 or 4 children, while usually we welcome families with one or two children. It is worth mentioning that one new kibbutz, Or HaNer, has recently got involved into the Program. There is all the necessary for newcomers in this kibbutz: light apartments, good infrastructure with a swimming pool, a canteen, a policlinic, sports and playgrounds, kindergartens, Hebrew class nearby etc. We plan to accommodate 8 families there in October.
Against all odds we try to make the life of our participants as comfortable as possible. We celebrate all national, traditional holidays and birthdays together, we take them to important historical places, museums to show them the real Israel from inside and facilitate their integration into Israeli society, we help them with Hebrew, we stay next to them in every difficult situation they are faced with.
As a result, many of them ask us for staying in kibbutz after the program is completed. For example, the Hutz family from the city of Shostka, the Kopitskii family from Kharkov, Ekaterina Kichko from Kyev, Lubov Yolkina with her mom from Odessa, the Aptekar family from Kyev, the Dumyak family from Lvov, the Semenchenko family from Kyev, the Dreiman family from Kharkov etc.
However, many families are already committed to starting their life outside the kibbutz – Olga Gordienko from Dneprodzerzhinsk, Nelly Zubkova from Krivoi Rog.
With your assistance, we have done more than usual – we have welcomed more families than usual, we have opened new places for our olims – 18 new kibbutzim have joined us, we have found the strength to help everyone who applied to us. Thank you for everything, we believe that better times will come soon!
Article provided from the Jewish Agency
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