Sometimes you see me on the street, waiting at the bus stop on my motorized wheelchair. Your looks are especially pitying when the bus pulls up at the stop and the driver comes out to open the ramp so that I can get on the bus.
I see you watching patiently or trying to move aside to make room for my huge wheelchair, which is actually a part of me – my legs. There’s no need to pity me now. A few years ago there was. You wouldn’t have seem me at all then. For five years, I sat at home and had nowhere to go… These were five very tough years. There was nothing to wake up for in the morning, nothing to go to sleep for at night… All I could do was watch everyone else move on with life, while only I remained behind.
The years of Gehinnom (purgatory) began when I finished high school and there was no suitable program for me. My friends were all busy learning a profession. Afterwards they got married, had children, and barely thought about me. Here and there, someone would remember to “do a mitzvah” and pick up the phone to call me. But by then, we already had no topics in common and the conversations would fizzle out within two minutes.
My dear parents ran from this MK to that public figure and joined up with other parents of girls like me, who were sitting and agonizing at home because the government doesn’t fund programs for disabled young women of our age. And they almost gave up.
And then, a warm, caressing ray of light broke through the clouds: Ezer Mizion rallied to the cause and built us a Day Center in Moshav Nechalim, and it’s the place of our dreams. Since then, I wake up happy in the morning, get organized quickly, and set out for a long day full of activities, learning, social contact, experiences, and fun. There, I have friends and a range of occupations, including sports, which I do on a special bicycle that you pedal with your hands. I learned how to sculpt with ceramics and to model and design with a 3-D printer. Suddenly, I, too, can work in a field that interests me and earn my bread with dignity. There are other girls like me at the Empowerment Center, and Ezer Mizion runs a parallel Center for boys.
So when you donate to Ezer Mizion, know that, among everything else, you are funding the will to live for me and my friends, and that is real lifesaving!
With deep appreciation to you!
Sari
