An UPdate from our CEO – Winter 2020

December 15, 2020

Dear Friends,

You would think that without the usual distractions of commuting to work, travelling abroad, and socialising we’d have had time to sit back and relax a little. Not a chance! At Youth Aliyah Child Rescue, we have been busier than ever as we continue to adapt to everchanging restrictions and turn them into opportunities.

For the children who call our youth villages home, life has never been more complicated. That’s no small statement for young people who have already endured unspeakable hardship, whether due to extreme poverty, abuse, neglect, substance abuse, or a combination of factors. Whilst we have hunkered down and figured out how to get our own families through this ordeal, the incredible staff of the youth villages and mechina programmes has worked within a shifting landscape to provide stability to Israel’s most vulnerable children.

We knew we had to step up for our children, now more than ever, and so we quickly mobilised our amazing Fundraising Committee and started holding virtual events. We’ve had a lot of fun meeting online whilst raising desperately needed funds to help our children through this pandemic. We have managed to purchase laptops so that children can participate in distance learning when the government required them to return to their family homes during lockdowns. We have sent money to provide modest living stipends to young graduates who were just beginning to live independently, supporting themselves through university with restaurant and hotel jobs that have now disappeared. Your support is allowing these resilient young people to remain on the academic paths that they have worked so hard to get onto. And we have worked with a couple of inspiring bnei mitzvah in the UK to support their fundraising projects for our charity.

We invite you to join us in any way you might enjoy. Sign up for our upcoming events (we have some excellent ones planned!), join the Fundraising Committee (or form your own), be inspired by our bnei mitzvah and start fundraising for us (we can help). You might find, as we have, that getting busy makes the days go by much faster.

We look forward to seeing you all again soon. Until then, take good care of yourselves and each other, and I hope you have a very happy Chanukah!

Daliah Mehdi
Chief Executive

An update on our wine programme

The wine programme at Aloney Yitzchak Youth Village, started with seed money from Youth Aliyah Child Rescue and the support of one special donor, has completed one full cycle. The first year’s wine is being bottled as we go to print. Meanwhile, organic Merlot grapes have already been harvested for next year’s wine and the winemaking process has begun again. Led by an experienced professional winemaker, the students have worked on every step of the process, from growing the grapes, to making the wine, and even designing the label. The students can look forward to an exciting career path, and we can look forward to a delicious organic wine!

Introducing the future of medicine

We are very proud to introduce you to Tareku Mucheye, the first recipient of the Leonard Stein Scholarship. This scholarship was established in memory of Leonard Stein, an English scholar, lawyer, politician, and Zionist. He held strong liberal views and cared deeply about social issues. Tareku made Aliyah in 2004 at the age of 15 and graduated from Yemin Orde Youth Village. He served in the IDF for six years as a medical officer and is now taking the next step towards his dream of becoming a doctor. Tareku says that he sees medicine as “a profession that illustrates coexistence between people” and as a doctor he intends “to bringing hearts together between different populations.” We know that Tareku will ensure that Leonard Stein’s memory is, indeed, a blessing and we wish him every success in medical school.