The Netanya Foundation raises money for projects the city is unable to fund. We have found them to be a wonderful partner. Depending on the project, they supervise buying and/or construction. Our first project was the renovation of a moadonit, an after school day care club that is a substitute home for 15 children each ages 6-10 years. The children who come to this club are high-risk from severely dysfunctional families and are primarily olim (immigrants to Israel) from Ethiopia and the Former Soviet Union. They are referred to the clubs by social workers, and if it were not for the clubs, these children would be removed from their homes and sent to institutions. Moadonits are in fact models of real homes and include a “housemother,” who cooks dinner for them in the tiny club kitchen, educational counselors, and “big sisters.” By coming here, the children are in a protected, intimate environment where they receive much needed warmth, individual attention, help with their homework, enrichment activities, and a hot meal that is often their only meal of the day. In the moadonit we renovated there is a special program for each child that includes therapy with his/her parents and family. They arrive at the club directly from school at 1:00 pm and stay until 6:00 pm when they return home only to shower and sleep. The club operates all year round. Four years ago HOT matched a designated gift from one of our generous donors and paid for the reconstruction and furnishing of this club in the crime-ridden Netanya neighborhood of Sela.
Last year we funded a renovation of their “backyard”; grading it, built some outside games including a concrete ping pong table and soccer goal, and built a huge overhead shade from the sun.
This year we spent time at a grade school that was in a similar area and is 98% Ethiopian. Shockingly, while the vast majority of schools in Israel have one child per computer during computer class, in this school they had two children per computer during class. We agreed to purchase ten additional computers for the school and a digital projector.
We are currently considering renovating another club located in a very old building and renovating a classroom in a grade school to help Ethiopian kids have the mathematic tools to be properly prepared for middle and high school.
The Netanya Foundation has several projects available ranging from $10,000 - $75,000 or more. Any donor who is interested in “giving kids a chance” should contact HOT to go over the various opportunities. Several of these opportunities have matching gift potential increasing the buying power of your dollar to $1.50 or $2.00.