special – Page 3 – Ezer Mizion

Netivot’s Third Year

For the third year running, the Netivot branch of Ezer Mizion held its day camp on the campus of Chemdat Hadarom College

Last week, Ezer Mizion finished its summer camp season with 14 different camps when its day camp for special children on the campus of Chemdat Hadarom College in Sedot Negev ended.

This is the third year that the Netivot branch of Ezer Mizion has been running the day camp on the campus.

110 special-needs children from the entire Southern region participated in the camp, each one with a personal counselor assigned to him. The day camp was operated by Ezer Mizion administrative and professional staff, backed by 140 volunteers. The camp ran for two weeks. Continue reading Netivot’s Third Year

Paid in Full

Vacation for Yeshiva students is over. They had a few weeks to recharge. To go on a hike, relax with a book, meet friends for pizza. Some opted to apply for a temporary job to earn a bit of money for the year. And then there are those that would shoot for the top. The top choice for vacation time. The slot that hundreds upon hundreds apply for. The absolutely best way to spend vacation.
Most are disappointed. Only a few are accepted. Is it a top-paying job? A low—priced resort where they can laze away the days? No, it’s neither of these.
It’s a place where they will be required to work from early-very early- in the morning till nightfall, with hardly a moment’s rest. It’s a place that offers no financial remuneration, not one dollar. Continue reading Paid in Full

A Letter Meant for You, Our Dear Friends and Supporters

Hi Hadassah.

Wow! What a great camp and what a phenomenal group of young women working there!

Mira was a bit overwhelmed to see us and started to cry hysterically but she is settling back in to being with us. I think it was a mix of realizing camp was over, realizing she missed us and wondering why the heck we left her for a week. Rachel said Mira did not cry at all at camp so I know this was just the transition and those are often challenging for Mira.

Rachel, her counselor, was beyond fabulous! I would love to take her home and I wish that all of our sitters were more like her. She has incredible energy with a beautiful sense of calm and confidence. Mira had one seizure while at camp and it sounds like it was handled as well as it could have been.

We also had a great week with our boys and our youngest even got to experience one day and night where he was the only child which never happens.

So many thanks!

Cindy

Diagnosis at the Playground

As everyone knows, early childhood is a time of great developmental significance. The spectrum of areas that can be evaluated and treated at this age is quite broad. In fact, some of them can be treated only at this age. At the initiative of Ezer Mizion, in collaboration with the Bnei Brak Municipality and the National Good Beginning Program, the Peninat Sarit and Peninat Batsheva daycare center network has begun running the Active Nurturing Playground in their preschools. At this point, the project has been launched as a pilot program in the Bnei Brak and Afula centers. Continue reading Diagnosis at the Playground

To Fight, or to Surrender by: Esther Klein, retired educational supervisor, currently a victim of ALS

My son Ahrele moved to Beitar, and I am planning on attending the housewarming party. I am planning… but my family has other plans. I announce my intentions and immediately receive the typical reactions: Mommy, why do you have to travel out there? It’s a big effort for you. Just call him up.

I consider their words. Why fight all day? You don’t feel well – enough, give up. Surrender to harsh reality. The overwhelming majority of A.L.S. patients in my condition are hospitalized in wards for terminal patients, waiting silently for…. And I, I keep fighting all day. I fight because I want to continue…to continue giving. But the ALS is a potent enemy and me? I’m just a weak soldier. Continue reading To Fight, or to Surrender by: Esther Klein, retired educational supervisor, currently a victim of ALS

Developmental Coordinators Empowering the Principal

Due to the great success of Ezer Mizion’s Active Nurturing Playground Project, a program used to identify developmental weaknesses at the early stages and implement means geared to enhance the child’s development, a new step has been undertaken to further the program.
The Developmental Coordinators’ Training Course funded by the Van Leer Foundation and the Jerusalem Municipality is a follow-up program to the “Active Nurturing Playground,” a project of Ezer Mizion in collaboration with the “Children and Youth At-risk Program,” the Education Ministry and local municipalities. Continue reading Developmental Coordinators Empowering the Principal

Tzamid Afternoon Club for Special-Needs Children in Beit Shemesh

As the mother of a little girl with special needs, I had always heard about the afternoon clubs for special children that operated in the major cities, Jerusalem and Bnei Brak, and in my heart, I envied them. I had no idea that in my very own city of Beit Shemesh, just such an afternoon club operates under the auspices of Ezer Mizion, with the collaboration of the Beit Shemesh Municipality! Continue reading Tzamid Afternoon Club for Special-Needs Children in Beit Shemesh

A Special Simcha

This year, once again, thousands gathered at Ezer Mizion’s annual Simchat Beit Ha’shoevah celebration for children and youths with special needs. The children were joined by their families, their dedicated volunteer counselors and many others who came to share in the happening.
The air was permeated with electricity as song after song soared to the heavens. It was especially moving to see Continue reading A Special Simcha

CP Won’t Stop Me! part two

Menachem Weiss, a “special” teen with CP, reports every week to Merkaz Ha’inyanim on an angle of life that he alone can talk about
Ezer Mizion Retreat 5774 – Continued
Shalom dear readers!
I already told you about the first days of the retreat. There was so much going on that I couldn’t finish it last time I wrote .
On Monday morning, there was a learning session with Yair Avitzur, the head of our group, and he prepared us for the public test that would take place on the last day of the retreat. I usually do ok but all that prep certainly doesn’t hurt. Continue reading CP Won’t Stop Me! part two

“In This Camp, There’s No Room for Sadness”

Kol Ha’ir – Bnei Brak – Shvi’i
By Efrat Miller
“The retreat takes place in a pastoral, tranquil, vacation village, and all the programs we run include humor and good cheer”

Day camps for sick children, special-needs young adults, and special-needs girls, a sleep-over camp for teens – and that’s just a partial list * Last summer, Ezer Mizion ran no fewer than thirteen different day-camps and retreats for 2347 children and patients and their families * “For us, it’s not just a vacation – it’s fuel for the whole year,” sums up one of the mothers * On the threshold of the 2014 summer programs, we went out to hear about it first-hand from both sides – both from the organizers and volunteers, and from the parents of sick children who went out to charge their batteries.
From time immemorial, “summer” and “camp” have gone hand in hand. “Kayta,” the root of the word “kaytana” (the Hebrew word for camp) means “summer” in Aramaic. When we hear the word “camp,” we immediately think of frolicking children, attractions and trips, counselors hoarse from singing, and the characteristic scent of water parks.
But when you say “Ezer Mizion camps,” an important component is tacked on to this association: Participants in these camps belong to one of the special population groups for whom camp is not just a way to pass the long summer vacation, but rather – and primarily – a “gas station” where they can refill their tank with physical and emotional energies. These are people whom life has presented with complex struggles, and the major contribution that the summer programs grants them is expressed throughout the year that follows, until… the next summer camp.
We went out to survey five out of the thirteen summer retreats and day camps operated by Ezer Mizion in the summer of 2013 from up close, and we returned absolutely awestruck. Continue reading “In This Camp, There’s No Room for Sadness”