2023 March Newsletter

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Adopt a Family Foundation NEWSLETTER ________________ March 2023 We hope your 2023 has been off to a good start! We’d like to take this opportunity to wish you health, success and happiness! Thank you for all your love and support in 2022. With your help, we were able to achieve so much! And this is what we have accomplished since our Gala last September… As the situation tenses up in Southern Israel and Jerusalem in particular, we have been in close touch with all our families We have maintained our financial support to our families for the Holidays…we are about to send our support for Pesach. Twice a year, each family adopted by our Foundation receives a symbolic check of $180 to celebrate the Holidays. We celebrated a birth with joy Adopt a Family Foundation sees our families as part of our community and follows each member throughout the years. We were thrilled to welcome little Alma into the world and the family was so grateful for our financial gift! We offered another educational scholarship Tamar started a degree in physical therapy at Ben Gurion University. We offered her a scholarship of $1,500. We provided therapy sessions to allow a young mother to better cope with the tragic situation she is facing, after the murder of her mother-in-law. We sponsored 2 ping-pong tables for the school in Sha’ar Hanegev, to provide additional entertainment for students. We hosted a Hannukah party in Mishkan Ella in Sderot for our families. The highlight of the past year was the get togethers we held in Israel in November. There is nothing better than face-to-face connection. Our families were so welcoming and grateful for their relationship with Adopt a Family Foundation. We organized a gathering for our families from Sha’ar Hanegev and Sderot at the Argaman wine house in Kibbutz Nir Am. We were very graciously welcomed by Ofer Liberman, owner of the winery. We enjoyed the spread and the wines, but above all, we loved having the opportunity to spend time with our families after so long! We also met with Nadav Peretz and Hana Tal, current and previous directors (respectively) of Sha’ar Hanegev’s Hosen Center, as well as Benny Marcovich, director of Gvanim in Sderot. We spoke about the stressful security situation our adopted families and citizens of the South at large live with, and how we can best help. We reviewed the activities we sponsored for the youth of Sha’ar Hanegev and Sderot. We got a better look the structures we donated: the Sensory room, the soccer field’s goals and basketball hoop we donated to the school of Sha’ar Hanegev. These meetings were very enriching as we discussed the benefits of all these activities for the children and thought of new therapeutic activities to provide. Carine with Nadav Peretz and Hana Tal From left to right, Aya Halevi, Benny Marcovich, Carine Chitayat Carine Chitayat was able to visit Benjamin Horgen – our 2021 gala keynote speaker – and family in their village of Tal Menashe. Their generosity and warmth was unforgettable. Benjamin led the way to Esther’s trail, where she was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist. The experience of walking on her steps was very emotional but deeply necessary. How can we really connect without experiencing it firsthand? Carine was also able to spend a day with Nitza and David Bakal, and Rachel Koren. After such tragedies, the pain is deeply engrained in the hearts of our adopted families, but they all show so much gratitude to us for our emotional and financial support. None of this could be done without you! Let’s hope that with this year we can provide all the help needed for our adopted families and the children of Sha’ar Hanegev & Sderot. Please mark your calendar ______________________________ Spring Boutique | April 30 Annual Gala | September 10 ______________________________ We hope to see you then! With much appreciation, The Adopt a Family Foundation Team