An UPdate from our CEO – Summer 2020

Dear Friends,

I hope that you and your families have stayed safe and well since we were last in touch.

As the world came to terms with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the staff of our youth

villages in Israel were faced with a two pronged challenge: they not only had to care for their own families, but they also had to ensure the physical and emotional wellbeing of the students in our youth villages. Government guidelines required many of the children to go home to families that had struggled to take care of them even without the added pressures of this pandemic. Others, with no family in the country or with families that were too unsafe to return to, remained in the youth villages during lockdown.

The youth village staff, already known for their innovative approach to working with at risk children, found their creativity put to the test. As you will see in the following stories, each village rose to the challenge and found new ways to meet each child’s needs during lockdown and beyond.

I am delighted to say that we have sent each of our youth villages and mechina programmes £10,000 to help with the additional expenses due to the pandemic.

Several of Youth Aliyah Child Rescue’s staff and trustees in the UK have been personally impacted by covid-19. We are excited that we are now up and running as usual and we are working on some fun local and virtual events to break the monotony of social distancing. Please check our Facebook page regularly and follow us if you can. We’d love to see some friendly faces, even if we can’t do it in person just yet.

Thank you for caring about Israel’s at risk children during such a challenging time.

Wishing you and your loved ones a wonderful and, most importantly, healthy summer.

Daliah Mehdi
Chief Executive

Irving Carter z”l, more than a patron

Our charity and our community mourns the terrible loss of our dear friend and patron, Irving Carter z”l. Irving was a proud and generous supporter of Israel’s vulnerable children: donating vehicles and dormitory refurbishments, funding life changing programmes, and stepping in to help with urgent appeals. One example of Irving’s generosity and compassion was funding the refurbishment of a hairdressing studio at Talpiot Village following an electrical fire. The new studio (photograph above) enables students at the village to study hairdressing and cosmetology so that they are able to learn hair and makeup skills they can use to establish a career when they graduate. Youth Aliyah Child Rescue Chief Executive, Daliah Mehdi commented, “I fondly remember his joy at being seated at our last gala dinner with our esteemed guest speaker, Ehud Barak, an honour that Irving most certainly deserved. May his memory be a blessing, and may the Carter family be comforted by their memories of a truly great man.”