HOT News

Spring/Summer 2008

Our domestic and international projects continue to grow in number. Since our last report we took on a number of new projects, revitalized some of our mainstays and became proactive in dealing with crisis. Our work in Sderot in refurbishing bomb shelters into dual use centers mostly for children after school is just a beginning. Our recent visits to Sderot and Ashkelon have left us shell shocked as we ask “what is to become of the next generation?” How do the children of today in those towns and in the outlying areas, who are the future of the State of Israel, grow up healthy and positive and well adjusted?

This edition of the HOT News features 55 of the programs and projects that are currently funded by Hands on Tzedakah and also gives updates about our continuing work with disaster relief,disaster preparedness and dealing with crisis. Some of the programs are quite large and result in a cadre of beneficiaries both domestic and in Israel that depend on HOTfor continuedvital programming. The 22% decrease in the value of the dollar versus the shekel has left us needing to fundraise significantly more dollars or cut our funding to the majority of our beneficiaries who are in Israel. As you, our donors, increase your annual commitment to Hands On Tzedakah, you will permit HOT to continue supporting our current programs and allow us to fund new programs that critically need our support.

Since Day 1, we have encouraged our donors to choose where they want their charitable dollars to go. It is a philosophy that HOT’s founders believe benefits both donors and beneficiaries. HOT seeks to be partners

It is in that vein that we have endorsed designated giving. HOT sponsors many programs within several categories of needs. You can learn about the projects we support in the HOT News on the following pages and we direct your attention to the bolded lines at the end of each write-up that quantifies the project’s needs.

There are many individuals who work on behalf of Hands On Tzedakah. In Israel, we have agents on the ground. While we are committed to visiting Israel regularly, we must have people we trust implicitly to deal with the day-to-day issues of the projects we fund as well as future programs we investigate. We have volunteers who help us and another agent, whom we pay, (remember 100% of our expenses and overhead are paid for by a special grant from one of our donors so 100% of all donations go directly to a project or program) and works for us providing accountability to all our Israeli projects. What we also strive for is finding programs, projects and organizations that can partner with each other. We work with community service coordinators from the schools and members of the clergy. A college student at Columbia University volunteers his time to update our website.

We think of our donors as investors who are generous, but cost conscious, and like all good investors, want to understand all the investment opportunities, and pick the one that makes the most sense to them. To read more about our projects and HOT’s other beneficiaries log onto www.handsontzedakah.organd find out how you can directly contact the people working first-hand on any of the projects in this report.

Very truly yours,

Ronald L. Gallatin Rose B. Robinson
Chairman and Co-Founder President and Co-Founder

The Hungry:

A Sandwich a Day for Every Child

In the last four years our commitment to the hungry children of Israel has increased by enormous proportions. This is due primarily to the benevolence of one of HOT’s donors who since the publication of our Fall2007/Winter 2008HOT News, once again upped his long- term commitment to this program and is funding 700,000 meals a year, benefiting 4,000 children through our Sandwich a Day for Every Child program.

And along with the designations of other HOT donors, our program is reaching 4,800 children everyday equating to 864,000 meals per year.

The program started in 2003 when HOT partnered with the elderly women volunteers from the Beit Frankforter Community Center where today they continue to prepare more than 500 meals a day for students from 11 schools in Jerusalem.

A year and a half ago, when it became clear that the women of Beit Frankforter would not be able to expand the program - HOT turned to Table to Table, based in Ra’anana, to take on the expansion. Meals are being prepared and delivered daily to 61 schools beyond the Jerusalem area in Kfar Sava, Herzliya, Tel Aviv, Hadera, Bet Shemesh, Ra’anana, Bat Yam, Ramle, Akko, Haifa, Netanya, Kiryat Ata, Kiryat Chaim and Pardes Katz. A full- time volunteer runs the program. She has a rotating cadre of volunteers who either prepare or deliver the meals and who are always asking for more volunteer hours. Hands On Tzedakah makes frequent trips to Israel and we meet with the men and women who make the sandwiches and pack the lunches. We go along for deliveries, and visit with the principals of recipient schools. This meal is lunch for the students. The principals cannot thank us enough for helping to feed the children who are now noticeably able to concentrate better.

Prompted by the concern of the major donor to this program about what happens to these kids during the 2 months of summer when school is out, we learned that many of the students are eligible for municipality sponsored day camp programs so their parents can continue to work and not worry about them getting in to trouble. What we also found out was that if HOT provided the lunches, the municipalities could take in more kids into the summer programs. Ultimately hundreds more children have been able to take part in day camps during the summer, stay off the streets and have their parents fears allayed because of the concern and generosity of our donor.

As this program became more well-known, the need for the continued expansion became more and more apparent. In our last meeting with Table to Table, they are projecting a need for 1,000,000 meals for the school year starting in September 2008. More and more of our donors are coming forward to designate their HOT donations to go towards feeding children through the Sandwich a Day Program for Every Child. Unfortunately, there appears to be no cap on hunger. Additionally, as we talked about in our opening letter – the drop in the value of the dollar versus the shekel has the potential to impact this program significantly. The use of fruit and vegetables picked in the Leket Program (see page 9) and contributions of food T2T has received from other donors has kept costs down, but unless the dollar/shekel reverses, we expect a substantial increase in costs for the next school year starting in September.

The children receive a large freshly baked roll, filled with either hummus, cheese, chocolate spread or occasionally meat, accompanied by a fruit or vegetable that comes through Table to Table’s food rescue program. In the school year starting in September ’08, we may need as much as $75,000 to continue to be able to feed the 4,800 children currently being fed. Additionally, it may cost as much as $140 to feed one extra child ($14,000 to feed 100 children) per year.

Feeding the Poor Families of the Jerusalem Border Patrol

HOT supplies a monthly “basic food package” (with special supplements for the holidays) to more than 200 destitute families of soldiers. We started this program in 2004 by helping 50 families. The soldiers are members of the Jerusalem Border Patrol (the men and women who guard Israel’s borders and prevent terrorist infiltrations) and have been identified by the Army welfare officer as being in severe financial distress. All the food is bought at wholesale or below; all the packages are prepared by volunteers; all the transportation and delivery is carried out by the Army. The food packages include oil, sugar, rice, coffee, canned vegetables, tuna, pasta, canned fruit, juice, sweets and more. Single soldiers receive instant soups, cornflakes, canned tuna, soda and small-sized canned goods that do not require cooking.

Our September mailing brought in an extra $19,000 designation for the Border Patrol by our generous donors. Again, we have the issue of the drop in the dollar to the shekel and we are looking for additional designated contributions to allow us to maintain the same quality and quantity of the food and products we purchase for the packages. To maintain the quantity and quality of this program, we need to raise an additional $30,000.

Dave's Kitchen

Dave Robinson’s Kitchen is in the Givaat Olga area of Hadera, Israel. Our initial contact with Dave was a year and a half ago when we learned about his operation through Table to Table which helps him out with food. Our initial grant was to give him money to buy containers and lids, gas and food. Dave provided HOT meals for more than 200 families twice a week. Last Spring, we found out that Dave’s kitchen space would no longer be available to him. He told us that there was a school close by that was willing to give him some space but that it needed a lot of work (and dollars) to make it into a working kitchen. HOT was very impressed by his work so we asked Dave to get us estimates, costs, plans and with our guidance asked himalso to look for outside funding with the promise that if this all made sense, Hands On Tzedakah would help fund the improvements to make a new Dave’s Kitchen. Dave was steadfast in his pursuance of commitments from the mayor, the municipality and the school. He was able to get a 10-year rent abatement from the municipality and a financial commitment from the school for $7,500 and with HOT’s grant of $13,500, Dave had the $21,000 needed to do the work. The kitchen began functioning at the beginning of this school year and we were proud to attend the dedication of the kitchen in March. But, Dave still needs help with the cost of food and supplies. In the last year, donors came forward with $4,000 to help support Dave’s efforts. With his expanded operations, we need an additional $6,000 to help him with his food purchases.

Together We Can Make a Difference

Boca Helping Hands is a community-based organization whose mission is solving hunger and crisis situations for the most needy. They run a soup kitchen, a food pantry, supply meals to the homebound and provide over 7,000 sandwiches per month to children in low-income after school programs. They also provide limited crisis assistance and help with job mentoring. They work at providing solutions to hunger and poverty in assisting low-income families, the elderly and the homeless in becoming self-reliant. Volunteers are a huge source of manpower in helping to make a difference. The Food Center has been in operation for 8 years, is open 5 days per week and serves an average of 133 meals per day. HOT’s first grant to Boca Helping Hands was for a freezer for the Food Center. Next we reduced their non-food wish list and purchased heavy duty pots and roasting pans and much needed commercial kitchen utensils. Since our September mailing we further reduced the wish list by purchasing a hand truck and meat slicer for the kitchen, and HOT was the last $981 needed to so that Boca Helping Hands could purchase a double-wide refrigerator and freezer - all paid for by a HOT donor designated contribution. Additionally this contribution was matched by an anonymous Boca Helping Hands donor, giving double value to our donation. We hope to raise at least another $5,000 for Boca Helping Hands.

Tova's Kitchen

Tova’s Kitchen is located in the Bukharan quarter of Jerusalem. The kitchen is the size of a small shed. Tova feeds a HOT meal daily to about 20 seniors in the adjacent synagogue. Whenever we visit Tova, we see elderly people walking up to her, with pot in hand, for a ladle of the food Tova prepared that day. We would like to continue to help Tova with $1,000 for the year to purchase food and containers.

Fighting Hunger in South Florida

Hunger does not discriminate – it affects people of all religions and it affects children, senior citizens, the unemployed, the mentally and physically challenged, homeless people, the working poor and victims of natural disaster. But children are the largest segment of our society experiencing hunger. Over 295,000 children in South Florida are living in poverty and experiencing hunger everyday. The percentage of children eligible for reduced or free lunches at public schools is staggering: Miami-Dade 59.8%; Broward 44%; Palm Beach 42%. A family of 4 must have income of less than $26,846 for the children to qualify for free lunches.

Approximately 800 not-for-profit food pantries and soup kitchens avail themselves of the Daily Bread Food Bank by purchasing food (from 0 to 18 cents per pound). All bread products and perishables are free. There are many unbudgeted and unmet needs at the Daily Bread Food Bank. In the past HOThas purchased an electric pallet jack (portable forklift) and addressed safety concerns in paying for rewiring and installation of light fixtures. Most recently, we issued the Daily Bread Food Bank a grant to pay for a new refrigeration unit for one of their trucks. The predicament of being short a refrigerated truck due to disrepair was costing the Daily Bread Food Bank the ability to pick up sizeable donations of cold or frozen food, including meat. The cost and installation of the refrigeration unit was more than $8,000 of which we received $7,189 in designated gifts to benefit the Daily Bread Food Bank. The greatest increase in hungry Americans has been among the working poor. We are looking to help those in our own back yard to alleviate at least some of the existence of childhood and adult hunger and want to continue our support to the Daily Bread Food Bank in ways that make a meaningful difference. If history is any guide to the future, the Daily Bread Food Bank will have more unanticipated needs that we will want to fund this year. We ask that you continue to designate gifts to this organization.

The Poor

Migrant Workers

Hands On Tzedakah’s partnership with Ruth Rales Jewish Family Service of South Palm Beach County, Florida and the Caridad Center (formerly known as theMigrant Association of South Florida) is a success. HOT is funding a half-time clinical social worker who is addressing the needs of the patients (clients) at Caridad by providing mental help assessment and treatment and educating volunteers, physicians and other Center staff about mental health issues and ways of identifying and referring people for assessment. The clinician is supervised by RRJFS. WhileCaridad has traditionally provided free medical and dental care to a large population of migrant farm workers, laborers and the working poor of Palm Beach County, they have not had themeans to offermore than intermittent mental health care. Bringing these two organizations together to work in tandem fulfills HOT’s mission of both supporting essential life sustaining programs and collaborating with agencies that dedicate themselves to helping others. A Creole speaking clinician and additional mental health hours are needed to meet the expanding needs of the community.

HOT also continues to answer the call for dire emergency needs that Caridad requests of us on a regular basis. HOT grants range from paying the utility and electric bills to temporary rental assistance, food, other aid and even burial costs of children. Recently, we were asked to help pay for a special helmet for an 18 month old boy suffering from a congenital condition called sternomastoid torticollis which causes a head tilt and a misshapen skull. The cost was not covered under Medicaid. The special helmet will allow Damien’s head to grow to the proper shape. Along with a local church, HOT came forward to help this young boy now so that his life can be what we all want for our children and grandchildren. We need to raise an additional $50,000 so that we can continue to pay for the clinical social worker and also expand our help for Caridad’s increasing daily problems and periodic special needs.

House to House

House to House is a small not for profit organization that helps people in Israel in a very hands-on way. They have several interesting projects donors can designate to without any funds diverting to their administration. Project Happy Feet provides shoes for school children whose parents do not have the means to provide them. Darla, who runs the organization, buys the shoes to size and distributes them herself to the parents, having delivered 113 pairs this past winter. We would like to raise at least $1,000 which will pay for 19 pairs of childrens’ shoes. Project Dignity allows House to House to help Holocaust Survivors with necessities in life like electricity in the winter, food and certain medications not covered by national insurance. HOT would like to begin with a fund of $6,000 for Survivors. For Women is a program that houses women and children who are victims of abuse that House to House supports by providing emergency needs like clothing for newly arriving women and children, school supplies, strollers etc. HOT would like to raise $2,500 to help make life a little easier for women and their children suffering from abuse.

The Most Basic Needs

We continue to support a program we began assisting in 2003 by helping 25 families in the very poor Romema neighborhood in Jerusalem. Four winters ago, we co-ventured with another organization and bought the families space heaters and have paid the electricity bills each winter since. It is clear that if we did not subsidize the cost of the electricity the heaters would stay off and the apartments would stay cold. The Romema project was begun many years ago by the late Trudi Berger with the hope that the children of this neighborhood, although desperately poor, would not end up like so many of their peers – uneducated, involved in lives of crime and making nothing of themselves except for continuing the cycle of poverty. Today, with the financial support of HOT and others, Trudi’s husband, Zev Berger, watches over these families, and although they are still dreadfully poor, the hope is the children will be raised with values and the drive to go to college. We are helping with school tuitions, some extras for the families and will again be helping with supplements for the Spring/Passover holidays. We would like to raise an additional $7,500 beyond our current budget to help the families of Romema.

Leket Work Program

Our partner, Table to Tableoperates a gleaning project that had 51,000 volunteers participate in 2007. It is called Project Leket, and translated means that through the support of farmers-volunteers go into fields to pick and gather fruits and vegetables that were left unharvested at the end of the harvest season. Table to Table by only using volunteers, is not able to pick the entire produce the farmers have offered them. All of the collected produce is distributed by Table to Table to non-profit organizations serving people in need of food, located throughout Israel. Recently, Table to Table added 10 paid pickers to the group of volunteers gleaning the field as an experiment to see whether more produce could be gleaned. Not surprisingly, the quality of their picking is far better as they know what to look for and the amounts harvested are far greater than what volunteers who come for an hour or two. Each paid worker, picks $73,000 of food that is distributed to the poor. Think of the return on investment; $17,000 employs an otherwise unemployed person and the same $17,000 results in $73,000 of food (at wholesale) to feed the poor. There are also farmers who have said to T2T that they can pick there, but that they do not want volunteers. This is a “win- win” as an at-risk formerly unemployed person now has a job with benefits and the fruits of their labors will feed those who are hungry. They get transportation to and from work, sick pay and supervision. The cost for a full time picker is $17,000 annually. There is staggering room for growth in this project and it is not the intent to replace volunteers. To increase the amount of food harvested, T2T is looking to hire more paid workers. HOT has committed to the salary of one picker for a year and we are looking for designated gifts from our donors to add at least one additional paid worker.

Wear Your Difference - Guatemala

Mercado Global is a non-profit fair trade organization whose mission is to link the world’s most rural and economically disadvantaged cooperatives to the US market through a model that provides both fair wages and investments in local educational projects. They provide technology, support and marketing assistance, and enable the members of Guatemalan cooperatives to earn up to five times more than they would otherwise earn within the Guatemalan workplace. Mercado Global invests 100% of its profits from sales into local educational projects, scholarships and school construction.

Mercado Global was our agent on the ground in helping to feed the victims of Hurricane Stan in the fall of 2005. The matzah covers and matching afikomen bags and Elijah Cups that HOT commissioned the past three Passover holidays were made by the economically disadvantaged Guatemalan women through our partnership with Mercado Global. HOT’s investments in floor looms for weaving cooperatives, larger and HOTter stoves for ceramics workers, stainless steel tools for jewelry making and training sessions for artisans has increased their production volume by a factor of four. With the Levi Strauss Foundation and Whole Foods on board, this once tiny not-for- profit is becoming an incredible success story. As Mercado Global’s sales volume has grown, MG found that their partner artisans lacked not only the extra equipment needed, but the administrative, financial and technical skills to take advantage of all the sales opportunities that have come their way. Mercado Global asked HOT to partner with them to make the expansion and training program possible. Their fiscal ‘07 request of $20,666 included the cost of tools, extra looms, a kiln, transportation, and training classes (designed by the University del Valle including a business financial business literacy program). Several donors have designated funds towards Mercado Global. Combined with HOT’s designation from general funds, there is still a balance of $5,666 that is needed to complete the expansion.

Doing Things That No One Else Will Take On

Through his work with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC or Joint), Rabbi Jonathan Porath comes back to his home in Israel and shares his absorbing accounts about immigrants to Israel from the Former Soviet Union. Rabbi Porath maintains a Klitat (Fund) called Neve Orot for Russian absorption and does things that no one else will take on. His effort along with that of his assistant, Russian born Eleanora Shifrin, includes looking into each situation thoroughly and spending the time to get to know the people. Every few months we receive documentation about many of the olim (immigrants) in need of help ranging from requests for funds for food, school books, diapers, shoes, and living subsidies. The reasons? Most often serious illness, being victims of terror or even lack of child support. We would like to raise an additional $5,000 beyond our current budget to help Rabbi Porath help this population.

New Smiles for Better Lives

Since 1997, the Hazon Yeshaya Humanitarian Network has been operating soup kitchens across the State of Israel. Through the soup kitchens they discovered that one of the severe problems facing many of the people coming to the soup kitchens was tooth decay. Dental care in Israel is not covered by national health insurance. Since 2005, Hazon Yeshaya has operated a dental clinic in Jerusalem. Their free dental clinic serves the under privileged, both young and old. The philosophy is that the dentists are not just restoring the physiology, but also the dignity of each patient whose needs are most desperate. Social workers verify that every recipient is below the poverty line and truly needy. Hazon Yeshaya wants to expand the dental clinic model to other cities. As funding becomes available, they will do so. HOT would like to assist in this plan. A dental chair, light and delivery system costs $15,000. We hope our donors will designate funds to buy a dental chair.

One Person is Responsible for Another

HOT continues to purchase 36 chickens a week that the Rabbanit Kapach distributes on an alternating basis among over 200 poor families in Jerusalem. We are committed to continuing this program and would like to raise an extra $14,400 beyond our current budget to buy more chickens, diapers and formula.

Youth at Risk:

Giving Kids a Chance in South Florida

The Youth Activity Center in Boca Raton is a safe, nurturing after-school center for families that need affordable childcare. Program fees are based on a family's ability to pay. At night, the Center's Youth Program provides teenagers with a supervised, safe location to play night sports and games.

They had an antiquated computer lab and made a proposal to us for an upgrade. HOT, with the aid of some expert computer help, made the decision that the best way to proceed was to purchase 12 new computers for YAC to enhance both the children's learning and the quality of their experience at the Center. The computers and the installation cost of the new computers (including monitors) cost $11,100.00 not counting the many volunteer hours this project took. Unfortunately, just recently the Youth Activity Center was burglarized and all the new equipment was stolen. Without insurance, YAC is at the mercy of the police investigation and to-date, no recoveries have been made. Pending the outcome of the police investigation, and assurances of adequate security precautions and insurance, HOT is considering replacing these computers. Unfortunately there is no money in our budget for this and we will need designated gifts from our donors.

Giving Kids a Chance in Israel

Givat Olga, one of the largest neighborhoods in Hadera, Israel is home to many new immigrants, primarily from Ethiopia. There we found theBen Gurion Community Center (also known as EZORIM), an after-school program or ‘home' to 100 children who begin arriving at 3:00 pm and may stay into the evening as late as 9:00 pm. In the last year HOT provided a new coat of paint, a microwave, water heater, curtains, books, games, films, audio speakers, trash cans and balls and bats for the Center. Additionally, we worked with BGCC and the municipality and together we each contributed $1,800 to pay for last summer's field trips and $5,000 to purchase desks, chairs, bookcases, 2 computers and a printer, air conditioning, curtains, logic games, books and art equipment. Since the Fall 2007/Winter 2008HOT News, a HOT donor came forward and designated his donation to purchase 3 more computer stations that were critically needed at BGCC. Unlike the Youth Activity Center in Boca, BGCC has a burglar alarm connected to the police station. After visiting the Center in March, we see the improvements, the enhanced programming and the continuing needs and ‘hopes.' They would like to renovate the front yard and fill it in with dirt, plant a garden and add some benches ($700). What HOTcame to realize on our visit was that the majority of children will not have anything to eat after school and many of them will not get any food when they get home. For $760 we can feed 25 children through a subsidized Ethiopian project. We also want to repeat the funding for the summer field trips which this year, mostly because of the increase in the value of the shekel versus the dollar, will cost $2,250.

Turning Obstacles into Stepping Stones

Shearim Netanya is a small non-profit organization dedicated to helping Russian immigrants of all ages in Israel. During the school year they operate a small day care center with breakfast and lunch for children ages 2 to 5 and run afternoon activities for school age children considered youth at risk. Every 10th child in Israel is a new immigrant. A third come from single parent families and live below the poverty level. We have seen the difference HOT makes with extras for the program like tables and chairs, musical instruments and educational toys.

The last school year budget for the day care center and after care program for the older children was under funded. HOT paid for the special programs, field trips and snacks and drinks for the children. Our plea to establish an emergency assistance fund for necessities like food, clothing and medication was heard and one of our generous donors sent in $10,000 for emergency needs for the families. Summer is coming and HOThopes to raise $14,000 that will pay for the critical summer care activity for children of single parent families.

Young Caregiver Project

The Caregiving Youth Project is the first regional program in the U.S. that raises public awareness, provides education, conducts research and gives direct support services to caregiving youth and their families. It began in 2006 with a pilot program by the Volunteers for the Homebound & Family Caregivers in partnership with the School District of Palm Beach County. A Florida-wide survey showed that 12,500 students in grades 6-12 are actually student-caregivers of a family member who is ill, disabled, frail or suffering from substance abuse. These youthful caregivers perform tasks that go beyond chores and require a level of responsibility more appropriate for an adult. The survey also confirmed that the students' care giving responsibilities are adversely affecting their education and their lives. The pilot program in Palm Beach County includes a support group for student-caregivers, caregiver skills training, respite, partnering with other agencies, establishing a website for the kids, and developing services to assist families in supporting their children in this dual role.

Hands On Tzedakah strongly supports the ideals of this organization and is one of their founding sponsors. The Project is looking for 20 printers at $100 each and internet access for 20 caregiving youth at $120 per year per child.

Crossroads

Crossroads is an intervention program in Jerusalem that helps English-speaking teenagers who are having difficulty acclimating to Israeli life. This past year HOT and Crossroads Center have furthered its partnership by offering a new class called: Networking: An Introduction to Web Design. The class was attended by six boys and two girls, who had limited experience with computers. The curriculum included learning basics about web design, as well as learning different programs dealing with graphics and music. The teacher gave the teens the goal of creating a website for Crossroads, which they excelled at. During the last class, the teens presented the web site to other teens in the Center and to the staff. The 'Networking' class provided these teens with basic skills which can be used in the market place, including tools and the confidence to move toward their future.

Crossroads has come to us with the prospect of supporting a program called Scholastic Support - intensive academic reinforcement. At-risk English-speaking teens in Israel flounder academically. Many have learning disabilities, often undiagnosed. They have attended a number of schools, all of them poor fits academically, politically, socially, geographically, and/or religiously. By the time they come to Crossroads, they are attending school sporadically, if at all. They are fed up with learning—or, more accurately, fed up with themselves. They have no faith in their intelligence and see no value in attending classes, since no matter what, they fail. Without educational assistance, they will have few academic and professional opportunities because of difficulties involved in adjusting to Israel's language, culture, and social network.

To fill this socioacademic gap, the Crossroads Center will be offering such teens Scholastic Support. Scholastic Support encompassestesting for learning disabilities, academic texts and supplies, intensive prepatory classes, tutoring, guidance and financial assistance for registering for standardized tests. This program gives English-speaking youth an extra chance to make it in the larger Israeli society. They will be ready for national or military service, university, and the working world. Due to the decline in the dollar to the shekel, what previously cost $9,000 now costs $12.000. HOT will take the $9,000 from general funds and we would like to raise the $3,000 differential to enable the Scholastic Support program to help 30teens succeed academically.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Israel

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Israel continually recruits and trains new volunteer mentors so that lonely children from single-parent families will be assured of a Big Brother or Sister within a reasonable amount of time. Their goal is not just to create matches but to ensure that these pairs stay together for years and BBBS provides the necessary support to do so. The kids are ages 5 – 18 and the volunteers are from 10 to 60. Lots of time is spent on making the proper match. There is a police check, orientation and supervision for the first meeting. The volunteers want help in providing social experiences with the kids. The Jerusalem Clubhouse was opened in January 2008 and 70 pairs of children and their mentors have already visited. They have a long term lease and a donor who is paying for the first 3 years of rent. We have seen theClubhouse which also houses the offices and it is terrific. But thereare needs that include additional recreational equipment, games, electronics as well as plants and gardening tools so the Big Brothers and Sisters and the children they pair off with can together plant and maintain a garden. $12,000 will buy everything listed above, and any portion of that will certainly provide many extrasfor the groups to enjoy.

Moadonit (Children's Club)

The Netanya Foundation operates special after school day care clubs that are substitute homes for 15 children each, ages 6-10 years. The children who come to these clubs are high-risk from severely dysfunctional families and are primarily Ethiopian, native Israelis and Olim from the Former Soviet Union. They are referred to the clubs by social workers, and if it were not for these clubs, these children would be removed from their homes in to institutions. The clubs are in fact models of real homes and include a “house mother,” who cooks them dinner 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 warm meal which is often their only meal of the day. There is a special program for each child that includes therapy with his/her parents and family. They arrive at the clubs directly from school at 1:00 pm and stay until 6:00 pm when they return home only to shower and sleep. The clubs operate all year round.

HOT has matched a designated gift from one of our generous donors in gutting and reconstructing and outfitting a club in the crime-ridden neighborhood of Sela, in the city of Netanya in Israel. The municipality has agreed in writing not to change the use of the building for 10 years. Today, 11 special day care clubs are operating in Netanya, but there is a long list of children awaiting new special day care clubs to be opened - Netanya needs 16 clubs to include all these children in the program. The average renovation cost is 145,000 shekels which at today's exchange rate is approximately $40,000.

Ofanim "Ways"

Ofanim is a non-profit organization, which seeks to fight against the lack of equality of opportunity in education by giving children from outlying regions and disadvantaged neighborhoods, as well as children living in absorption dormitories, the opportunity for stimulation, exposure to new ideas, and enrichmentthrough the use of mobile laboratories. In these labs (busses), equipped with cutting-edge technology, the children take part in helping them to advance, improve their self-worth and strengthen their understanding in the various fields of knowledge. In addition, Ofanim works to introduce children to institutions of higher learning, through tours, lectures and meetings with significant figures.

Hands On Tzedakah believes that education and knowledge are the keys to breaking the cycle of poverty and reducing the gaps. Ofanim has asked HOT to fund field trips that will not take place without additional funding. Hands On Tzedakah paid for the transportation and lunch for 450 children to have a guided tour of Intel. Without these field trips, many children would never step foot outside their town borders and never understand that there are countless fields and opportunities to explore. There are other field trips that need funding: the Science Museum in Jerusalem @ $17 per child or $7,650 and the visit to "Havyeda" (Active Museum) where the children have an opportunity to learn about optics, communication and the environment also at $17 per child or $7,650; additionally they have asked HOT for 6 laptop computers at 4400NIS each or $1,300 each.

Children’s Group Home

Merav Children's Group Home on Kibbutz Merav in Gilboa, Israel is a home for children who have been removed from their distressed home environments by the State's social service agencies. Although each child receives a limited government stipend, donations are needed to provide all the necessary physical and emotional support they need. Our most recent grants paid for a computer, printer and software for $1,050 and a second computer station was purchased when one of HOT's donors sent in the designated funds for it. Additionally, HOT came to the rescue and purchased a new oven for the home when it was needed recently. The home needs to replace the two air conditioning units at $700 each and also the gas HOT water heater for $1,000. The wish list includes a ping pong table for $500; new bicycles for 3 children and new DVD videos.

Tech-Careers Computer Training for Ethiopian Israelis

Three related issues cause Ethiopians to remain at the bottom of Israeli society and impede their advancement: housing, education and employment. In 2003, Asher Elias, a member of the Israeli Ethiopian community, co-founded Tech-Careers to create the opportunity for young Ethiopian Israelis to become important productive members of Israeli society. The organization provides computer training and job placement in the field of hi-tech to students who have an aptitude for computer programming and the motivation to work hard, but who lack access to technology and technical training. The program includes two tracks; software development and Quality Assurance and Network/System Administration. The philosophy is simple – train a post-army high school grad intensely in a hi-tech field and he will get a job. Asher also recognizes the importance of teaching these students how to ‘survive' in a different world from where they have been raised and the last coursework before accepting a position is spent learning about social skills.

In the past, Hands On Tzedakah bought disk on key (flash drives or memory sticks) for each of the students and professional and technical literature in Hebrew and English. There was no room in their budget for these items and HOT was happy to provide such crucial and motivational tools.

Asher Alias wanted to be able to run two classes simultaneously. The cost of the second class was $110,000 made up primarily of the teacher, classroom rental, stipends, electricity and the one-time costs associated with an additional class including computers, projector, software and furniture. Asher raised $85,000 and HOT offered Tech-Careers a challenge grant for one- half of the remaining $25,000 needed. HOT made the $12,500 grant to Tech Careers when Asher successfully raised the last $12,500. Our grant allowed Tech-Career to renovate and open their new classroom and provide computer training and job placement for an increasing number of students. Students must sign a contract that when they graduate, get a job in the high tech industry and begin making a living wage – they must over time pay for a new student's tuition. HOTis contributing $15,000 towards the stipends for the students for Tech-Careers 2008 budget year. Asher has made the commitment to put 1,000 Ethiopian Israelis into the Hi-Tech Industry by 2012. We hope that our donors will continue to help make Tech-Careers even more successful by supporting it.

Psychosocial Rehab for Young Israelis at Risk

The Summit Institute located in the Talpiot area of Jerusalemand in the Negev (the South of Israel) runs a program for 250 teenagers and young adults with a history of psychiatric illness and hospitalization and a rehabilitative foster care program for 750 abused and neglected children and teenagers. Summit aims to prevent the institutionalization of its participants and adopts the approach that addresses the child's or young adults' physical, emotional, educational and vocational needs in the rehabilitation process.

Summit has vocational training workshops in sewing, carpentry and assembly, packaging and mailing. Hands On Tzedakah has already equipped the sewing workshop and we have seen first-hand the products being produced. The carpentry workshop is in need of both a high pressure air compressor and a shrink machine at the cost of $1,500 each. The director of the program has put in a special request for computers for the foster care program as we all know that computers are an integral part of today's world and an essential tool in a child's education. Summit wants to ensure that each foster child has access to a computer in his foster home. The cost of computer, software and a short training course is $1,100 for one foster child. HOT gave Summit funds for one child and since our last mailing one of our generous donors came forward and donated funds to purchase 4 more systems. Currently, Summit has an urgent request above all the other things on their wish list. Summit needs to help 15 foster children suffering from sever trauma. $3,600 will pay for one year of weekly psychological and psychiatric treatments. HOThas taken $10,800 out of its general funds to help 3 children. That leaves 12 more.

Project Graduation

Project Graduation is a celebration for high school seniors on graduation night. The two most deadly nights for teenagers are Prom night and Graduation night. The event is drug, alcohol and tobacco free, well supervised with proper security, ample entertainment, food and celebrations provided in a safe environment. It is completely volunteer driven and funded by donations. Hands On Tzedakah would like to again support this program for the 2007-2008 school year for four high schools. The cost of a school sponsorship is $500.

The Elderly:

Survivor Assistance Program - South Palm Beach County, Florida

Approximately 35 to 40 percent of Holocaust survivors in Florida live at or near the poverty level. According to a 2000 National Demographic Study, survivor's median income is about one-third of the income of other elders in the same age group. The goal of the Ruth Rales Jewish Family Service Holocaust Survivor Program is to enable survivors to live out their lives in their own homes, safely and with dignity. Because of the horrors experienced at the hands of the Nazis, Survivors do not fare well in congregate care facilities, such as nursing homes. Removing Survivors from their homes and placing them in such facilities often causes flashbacks of the war and Nazi persecution.

RRJFShelps provide for the needs of South Palm Beach County Holocaust Survivors by focusing on maintaining a safe environment, including socialization, and assisting with medical and nutritional needs. They arrange for home health care and cleaning services and are committed to the concept of "aging in place" by enabling these older individuals to maintain independent lives in the community for as long as possible.

The Claims Conference and the Area Agency on Aging supply most of the funds, but the number of Survivors asking for help increased almost three-fold in one year. Over the last year HOT committed funds to provide help for nine Survivors that included designated donations by our donors for more than half of our grant. On average it will cost $5,230 annually to provide the minimum necessary home health care and other services to one Survivor. We are trying to raise enough funds to cover the program for 28 survivors.

Survivor Assistance Program - Israel

Of the 260,000 Holocaust Survivors living in Israel – 25% (65,000) are economically needy. The Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel covers all of Israel and provides homecare to disabled Holocaust Survivors, emergency lifeline buttons, individual grants for items not covered by Israeli National Health programs and emergency funds. In addition to supplementing the basic services provided by the government of Israel, the Foundation runs programs to keep the plight of needy Survivors in the forefront of the public agenda.

The Foundation was urgently looking for money to help 500 Survivors. The program provides each Survivor who either lives alone or has an illness (that would require it) with an emergency life button. This button allows them to call for help through a bracelet they wear and also to get a doctor or ambulance for minimum cost. Over the last nine months, Hands On Tzedakah made grants to pay the annual fee for 184 emergency life care buttons of which 84 were designated gifts by our donors. This is an annual expense of $115 per Survivor so it is a continuing need.

Innovative Retirement

As people live longer, we feel it is imperative to help keep our elders physically and mentally active, help ease their poverty and provide them with a feeling of self-worth, respect, dignity and social equality. Changing the status and image of the elderly from dependent, weak and vulnerable to productive, capable and useful - are tenets that CLICK (Community Leadership & Intervention in Crisis for Kids & the Elderly) in Hod Hasharon, Israel and Hands On Tzedakah wholly support and strive for.

The elderly in Hod Hasharon are desperate for occupational opportunities. CLICK opened a handicraft sheltered workshop that generates revenue by commercially marketing handicraft kits. Their sales cover expenses and wages to the elderly and the profits are turned back into CLICK for future community programs for the aged.

CLICK's plans to expand the workshop by adding a coffee shop, retail shop to sell handicrafts, plant nursery, beauty shop and ceramic studio. CLICK has gained significant financial support from the municipality of Hod Hasharon, JDC- Eshel, the Israel Venture Network, the Claims Conference and Hands On Tzedakah. HOT split the cost of the initial business plan with JDC- Eshel and we paid for the air conditioners for the new building donated for CLICK's use. But CLICK is still short 90,000 NIS or approximately $25,500 and will need this commitment before they can begin construction.

Come My Friend

Prior to 2007, twice a month, Shearim Netanya held evening functions that benefited the lonesome and needy elderly. The occasion always included a HOT meal, entertainment, dancing, pep-talk and heartwarming socializing, for a nominal price to its participants. When the outside funding for the program was diverted to matters of security, SN raised their prices and held these events sporadically. Attendance dropped due to increased cost to its participants and their lack of knowledge as to when the infrequent evenings would be held. SN(also operates Focus on Children (see page 13)) believes the Come My Friend program to bea significant activity for this population by– "giving them an injection of renewed energy and a lust for life." HOT was asked to fund the program for 6 months with evening activities twice per month for $10,000. Instead we agreed to once a month for a year and are asking our donors to commit to the other $10,000 so that the elderly in Netanya can have their special evenings twice a month for a year. Additionally, SN is fund raising for a grand piano. So far 16,000 NIS or $4,600 has been raised. $2,850 is all that is left so they can purchase the piano.

Jobs for the Elderly

The purpose of The Employment for Israel's Elderly – a partnership for the future is to offer job placement and a sense of communal effort for skilled older immigrants who wish to get back into the work force and make their contribution to society. We are partners in this project with Koach Latet (Power of Giving- an affiliate of Meir Panim) and JDC-Eshel. Power of Giving has 15 warehouses in Israel where they assemble a wide variety of good-quality secondhand items, including furniture, appliances, clothing and more. These items are sold for a few shekels to the poor.

Participants in each center repair the furniture and appliances and sort, mend and display the clothes. They receive a stipend, a HOT lunch, engage in social contacts and build self-esteem. Whatever original skepticism there was within Israel that dollars spent should go towards the young, has turned around 180 degrees. Time and substance has given this program its enviable reputation within Israel's not for profit community.

Our partnership begins its fourth year of operations. Initially established in the Koach Latet warehouse locations of Tzfat, Ashkelon, Be'er Sheva, Tel Aviv and more recently to Haifa, Migda Ha Emek, Petach Tikva and soon to Dimona, the focus of the program is on strengthening and stabilizing the centers and working towards getting the participants more hours and a larger stipend which they want very much.

HOT has committed $79,200 to this program which includes a donor's designated gift of $39,733. HOT leveraged this grant with both JDC and Koach Latet have matching HOT's contribution. The combined programs have the potential to keep 184 elderly employed and 10,000 families receiving the benefits of the furniture, appliances and clothing the elders will repair. We are looking for an additional contribution of $20,000 to extend this project and to add to the stipends.

Breaking Down the Walls of Loneliness and Isolation

Project Ezra serves the frail elderly on New York's Lower East Side. Over 400 elderly who suffer from economic, physical and/or psychological difficulties are being helped by services provided through Project Ezra. Some of Project Ezra's services include direct relief to those whose Social Security benefits are insufficient to last the entire month, group programs and outings, intergenerational programs held at synagogues, housekeeping services, volunteer home visits, transportation, a food pantry, food package distribution at holiday time and a burial fund.

At Project Ezra as at Hands On Tzedakah, there is the firm belief that one's quality of life is enhanced by the freedom and dignity of living in one's own home. Project Ezra's Homemaker Program helps maintain this quality as warm and caring women vacuum, wash floors, clean bathrooms and do laundry – all the while preserving a sense of home and providing companionship and conversation to their elders. Project Ezra has been presented with a unique opportunity from the Weinberg Foundation. The Weinbergs will grant Project Ezra $75,000 to support the Homemaker Program over the next two years provided they raise $75,000 themselves. Hands On Tzedakah would like to help Project Ezra reach their goal with designated funds from our donors.

Alice and the Diplomat

In 1989, the privately owned, formerly posh Diplomat HOTel in Jerusalem was appropriated by the Absorption Ministry for the Soviet immigrants. It was called "a five-star slum" and a miserable place to live, especially for the old and infirm. Nowadays it is considered a Welfare Hostel. Today's "guests" remain a group of people who cannot integrate into Israeli society.

Alice, the activities director, works to create a Community among the residents. They have developed an on-site Ulpan, a library and thrift shop and an extraordinary resident choir. Alice coordinates activities and social services and looks for outside funds to give the residents some extras. The extras could be a special tutor, discounted tickets to a concert, a speaker, a special health care aide, transportation. There are no shops nearby and a public bus comes by only once a day.

The needs range from paying for transportation costs for volunteer caregivers who travel with the residents to hospitals and clinics to grants for individuals to pay for dental work, after surgery care, special diets, emergency call buttons and adult diapers. HOT will continue to help with these needs and for this year we will also help pay for an exercise class and lecture series for the elders. We would like to raise an additional $2,500 to help the Diplomat residents.

Silversmithing as a New Vocation

In a partnership with World ORT, JDC- Eshel developed a pilot program in vocational training for the elderly in silversmithing. The beginner's course focused on the basics of metal working and improving the senior's fine motor skills necessary for silver work while producing jewelry and art pieces. The first group of participants have completed the intermediate course that gave them the skills to become a silver smith and also taught them how to become entrepreneurs. Workshops are being set up in Karmiel for them to start selling their wares. Another beginner's class is scheduled to begin soon. There is a small fee each participant must pay for the class. Hands On Tzedakahis collaborating with both JDC-Eshel and World ORT for 36 elders. One of our donors has given one-half the grant and HOT has matched it and both JDC- Eshel and World ORT have matched HOT, leveraging our donor's gift six to one.

Special Needs:

Special Needs Training for Very Special High School Students

Four years ago, HOT began supplementing a job- training program in Martin County, Florida where 27 developmentally disabled high school seniors interned at local businesses. HOT's grant pays the students nominal wages based on their performance and diligence. A total of 62 children now participate and are learning about ‘real life.' Additionally, 40 of the students from three schools now participate in a therapeutic horseback riding program. While part of the public school day, it is funded completely by donations. We have been told the kids' advisors are trying to form a business where the kids would shed paper. The idea is being pitched to law firms, municipalities and others. As we get more info, HOT will pass it on to our donors. Again this year, a group of children and adults will be sent to participate in the local and state Special Olympics. HOT has been asked to pay for transportation and uniforms with an approximate cost of $2,000 and we are looking for a designated gift to pay for it.

Shutaf – "Partner" in Hebrew

Two American moms who now call Jerusalem their home could find no suitable summer program for their special needs kids. Last summer, they took it upon themselves to start a special needs day camp with the help of the staff, and use of the premises, of the Ein Yael Living Museum in Jerusalem. HOT helped sponsor last summer's week long camp and one of our donors subsidized the Chanukah day camp this past December. Shutaf hopes to take their success and continue the expansion of the Shutaf Vacation Camp program to more children, more holidays and eventually to extend the concept to after school activities and family gatherings. The immediate need is for support of a seven day camp for Passover for 30 children. All families pay a partial fee for the program. HOT has given Shutaf a grant for $6,000 for the Passover Camp. We hope our donors will designate contributions to Shutaf. Each $6,000 permits the camp to run for either the week of a holiday or for a week in the summer.

Me and My Mommy

Hands On Tzedakah continues to support the families at Shalva, a center for mentally and physically challenged children in Israel. Their Mommy and Me program includes 120 special needs babies and their mothers. It is very difficult for mothers to travel alone, often far distances, carrying an infant in one arm, a diaper bag and stroller in the other. The HOT Transportation Fund helps 31 of the moms get to Shalva in the cold of winter and the heat of summer. We want to increase our annual grant to the fund by $5,100 ($750 to make up for the change in the shekel/dollar exchange rate and $4,350 to help more mothers) to keep up with the need for transportation, which eases the additional burden this group of families face.

Best Buddies

The Best Buddies program matches students with developmental disabilities with students on a regular track. They become buddies in high school and spend time together socially with after school projects and fun. HOT will continue to sponsor the chapter in Martin County, Florida that has grown to 25 buddy pairs (50 members).

Exercising Muscles and Spirit

"I love this and I am good at it." Pal-O-Mine Equestrian Center in New York provides therapeutic, recreational and competitive horseback riding to physically, mentally, and emotionally disabled individuals of all ages. Equine therapy is giving these individuals a sense of independence and something to feel proud about. Hands On Tzedakah has renewed their grant, which is used to provide scholarships for two students for a period of one year. There are more individuals who need financial assistance. A donation of $2,500 provides complete support (lessons, therapy, competitions) for one rider for an entire year. A donation of $1,800 provides the riding lessons for one year; a donation of $600 provides riding lessons for a single trimester.

Compassionate Care:

Camp Sunshine

Camp Sunshine in Maine, is a retreat for children, with life threatening illnesses and their families. It runs year round and provides recreation and group support and focuses on alleviating the strain a critical illness takes not only on the ill child, but also on other members of the immediate family. There are no fees to attend the camp, but the families must provide their own transportation. Those families that live in the northeast are able to drive to the Camp. But those who live far away often cannot attend, because the transportation costs are too steep. For summer 2007, HOT offered Camp Sunshine a $10,000 matching grant for transportation costs for families coming from Southeast Florida. In the past HOT proved to be the leverage needed in getting matching grants from St. Mary's Hospital in West Palm Beach, Transplant Foundation, Inc. (affiliated with the University of Miami School of Medicine) and JetBlue Airways. For Summer 2008, we would like to raise additional funds so that we can meet the transportation needs of other families facing a child's critical illness and so much in need of family respite care. It is nice to note that since the publication of our last HOT News, one of HOT's new donors came forward and in addition to his pledge designated for transportation for families, bought many items on Camp Sunshine's wish list.

Mental Health/ Mental Wellness

Bayit Cham is a non-profit organization that provides mental health services in Israel. Their initial concentration was promoting the recovery of people with mental health challenges by placing them in the mainstream workplace utilizing job coaches that work beside the rehabilitants as steady support. There are more than 240 people working, interacting and feeling self-worth, rather than sitting at home doing nothing and going back and forth between home - hospital – home. Bayit Cham's vocational rehabilitation programs operate in tens of cities in Israel, serving all sectors. Transportation to and from the workplace is an expensive obstacle. HOT pays the bus transportation for 14 individuals to get to work. An additional $3,000 per quarter will pay for 14 more.

Bayit Cham has expanded their work beyond vocational rehabilitation and is striving to arouse public mental health awareness and change the public's attitude towards deepening acceptance of it. Bayit Cham has established awareness, early-intervention and treatment programs, a help-line, mental health awareness seminars throughout Israel and the opening of two new branches –the larger one opened in Jerusalem in March 2008. Hands On Tzedakah contributed the final funds needed to open this Center with a designated gift by a new HOT donor of $10,000 and an additional $17,500 coming from our general funds. For many, this will be a place where small problems are addressed before they get out of control and for others it means drawing up and beginning a long-term treatment plan. At the new Jerusalem Mental Wellness Center, Bayit Cham would like to establish a program for children and adolescents suffering from low self-esteem, depression and eating disorders called Help a Child Achieve Mental Health. It is BC's policy that a family must pay towards treatment to prove commitment. After deducting the government health funds and the families' payment of fees, the balance for evaluations and therapy sessions to be raised is $2,400 per child. There are 75 children who need this program. HOT is looking to fund the program for 10 children.

Helping Jerusalem's Oldest Hospital

Bikur Cholim Bikur Cholim is a hospital in the heart of Jerusalem. Situated outside the walls of the Old City, it is the only hospital in the center of Israel's capital. While well over 1,300 casualties of the terrorist attacks during the intifada received treatment in their emergency room, 40,000 people seek treatment at the Emergency Department of the hospital each year. HOT continues to support the hospital's equipment needs and on our most recent trip there, a rhinometer, a machine that locates and evaluates blockages was purchased for the hospital. The former one was broken and could no longer be used for necessary testing and therefore surgeries had to be cancelled indefinitely. The head of the ENT Department of the hospital is very grateful for HOT's grant and the ability to resume testing and follow up. Bikur Cholim is still in need of several hospital beds for the Pediatric Department at a cost of $2,500 each.

What Insurance Doesn't Cover

We have relationships with hospital social workers that work in the main hospitals in Jerusalem. Our agents, the social workers, identify those in need and Hands On Tzedakah is given the opportunity to make it easier for those who have fallen on the most difficult of times. We would like to expand our budget by $5,000 this year, to help more individuals and families in desperate need.

Of Home, Family and Future

New York based Of Home, Family and Future, offers grants for both long-term affordable housing and support services to women and children affected by domestic violence and to support a successful college experience for high school students currently living in residential treatment centers. Educational grants, up to $12,000 per year, are used for books, computers, clothes, pocket money and other student expenses that will help the student feel more comfortable amongst his peers on the college campus.

VetDogs

More than 30,000 US soldiers have been wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan and over 3,000 of them are severely wounded with life altering injuries that include amputated limbs, spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, blindness, paralysis, serious burns and post traumatic stress disorder. Veterans Helping Today's Returning Heroes raises funds for the express purpose of providing professionally trained assistance dogs exclusively for these military heroes. There is no Federal government program to provide specially trained guide or service dogs for our severely wounded returning military veterans. Approximately 250 puppies are bred and raised each year but 2/3 of the dogs fail to meet the exhaustive and lengthy training program. The cost to breed, train, and place a guide or service dog with a severely disabled war veteran, combined with the training of the new owner is $30,000 per dog and the average working life of an assistance dog is between seven and ten years. HOT feels that America needs to help its returning soldiers and has given a grant of $3,000 hoping that one or more of our donors will make up the difference to supply a necessary "partner" to a young man or woman who was severely injured in the service of our Country.

Neonatal Help

Over 8,000 babies are born every year at Maaynei Ha'Yeshua Medical Center in Bnei Brak in Israel. The sight of 100 babies in the nursery is a sight to behold. The hospital seeks to offer the best medical care to premature and sick infants and depends on donations to purchase state of the art medical equipment. HOT recently purchased a mobile infant warmer which is used in place of an incubator. The hospital is in need of many capital items including volumetric infusion pump – a medical device that delivers intravenous fluids and medicine to patients for $6,930 and a respiratory humidifier to use in the treatment of respiratory conditions by ventilation or oxygen therapy for $6,497.

Program to Get Substance Abusers into Detox and Rehab

Hands On Tzedakah issued a grant for a program in Jerusalem that endeavors to get substance adult abusers into a successful detoxification and long-term rehabilitation program. The two counselors paid for by the Jerusalem Anti-Drug Association are former drug users. We would like to expand our support ofthis unique and take into account the change in the shekel over the dollar and double HOT's grant to $5,000.

Student Community Service Projects:

The Hands On Tzedakah Community Service Program

The Hands On Tzedakah Community Service Program gives high school and college school students the opportunity to use their initiative and design and implement community service projects. Hands On Tzedakah provides the "start-up" money for the students' projects, and when necessary, will assist monetarily in continuing to subsidize projects. The greatest consideration is given to projects that include collaborations and use the grant as leverage to improve/save lives. There is no doubt that these experiences, in addition to serving the community today, will result in the students becoming caring and philanthropic members of society. Some of the projects already funded are El Salvador Alternative Break Initiative where college students travel to El Salvador and perform community-rebuilding volunteer work and explore the societal challenges of poverty, homelessness and hunger; Responding to Overseas Needs in the Ukraine where college student leaders traveled to the Ukraine to do community service with the commitment to bring home the ‘story' and continue advocacy for this work; Project Rebuild New Orleans where college students spend their winter or spring breaks; Community Living Renewal where college students work with the city and businesses to clean-up blighted neighborhoods; Leading up North where college students do short-term service projects in parts of Israel affected by the war with Hezbollah; Pairing high school students with disadvantaged elementary students forming positive relationships; Painting Sunshine where high school art students and their art teacher brought art classes to 30 disadvantaged children of migrant workers; a Seniors' Prom for the elderly paired with college students.

Hands On Tzedakah Emerging Philanthropist Community Service Program

The George Snow Scholarship Fund(GSSF) is based in Boca Raton, Florida, and provides educational grants to some of the area's brightest and most deserving scholars. The objective of the program is the same as the other community service programs we run with the high schools and colleges. HOT gives the Snow Scholars the opportunity to design their own community service project, or through their participation, improve and enhance the outcome of an existing project so that they may become a part of the next generation of philanthropists and community service oriented adults. Recently approved was the Ugandan Children's Art Project submitted by a UNC junior who through Advocates for Grassroots Development will be teaching art to children in Busia, Uganda in summer 2008. We will give you an update on this exciting project in the next issue of the HOT News.

Victims of Terror:

  • Terror Strikes Our Jerusalem Border Patrol
  • Widowed In All But Name
  • When Terror Strikes There Are So Many Victims

Terror Strikes Our Jerusalem Border Patrol

January 24, 2008 -One soldier killed; 2 severely wounded in 2 different attacks. The checkpoint at which the shooting took place served as a pedestrian crossing point in East Jerusalem and claimed the life of an IDF soldier who was a member of the Jerusalem Border Patrol. This 20 year old son was buried the next day by his parents and family in his hometown of Be'er Sheva. The young woman on duty with him that night, also sHOT, is still in the hospital with no sign of when she will leave and go into a rehabilitation center. She has been released from further military duty as her injuries are so severe that the full degree of her disability will not be known for a year. She has suffered gunsHOT wounds to her chest, arm and neck. The third Border Patrolman was stabbed in the hand while on duty near the Atarot industrial area in northern Jerusalem. He is home now, also released from duty, having undergone 3 operations so far and most likely will not have the use of his hand.

It is HOT's desire to help the wounded soldiers and to help the family of the soldier who was killed with a few items that the Army or the Ministry of Defense of Israel will not provide.

One of our agents, along with the IDF Welfare Officer met with the families. Our first thought was a laptop computer for the young woman soldier in the hospital to keep her occupied and up to date with the world around her. But she cannot hear and she cannot yet see and her shoulder is also useless- so a laptop computer for now would be useless as well. The family made aliyah (emigrated) from Russia in 1996. Her father is suffering from Alzheimers and her mother has to leave him alone at home while she tends to her daughter in a hospital in the north. On the visit to their three-room apartment, it was apparent that the roof leaks and there is visible mold. There is no HOT water as the boiler is no longer working due to the father's dementia taking hold and as such he has destroyed most of the electrical appliance connections. Hands On Tzedakah will repair the roof and is trying to work with the family to find an appropriate congregate living facility for the father to live. Then we will replace the boiler.

Our other wounded soldier is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He is married with a young child. Their economic situation was bad before the stabbing. They do not have a table to eat on and HOT will be purchasing this item for the little family as well as a television.

The soldier who was killed leaves behind his parents and three younger siblings. They live in a 2 ½ room apartment. The oven and the washing machine need to be fixed and there is no heat in the house. They also need two beds for the children. HOT will try and make life a little easier by purchasing some home necessities for them. Our agent on the ground handling this is mindful of sensitivities and the grief the family is experiencing.

We would like to raise $7,500 to pay for these items and an additional $15,000 to have in reserve so that HOT can be in a position to help any future families who might sadly face the same fate.

When Terror Strikes There Are So Many Victims

Since the beginning of the second intifada in 2000 and prior to Israel's month-long war with Hezbollah last summer, over 1,000 Israelis were killed by Palestinian militant terrorists. HOT works with many organizations and social workers in Israel who provide support to victims of terror and their families. This relief comes in the form of food, clothing, transportation to therapy, rent, re- training and more. The effects of terror from the second intifada were not over when victims left the hospital. HOT has been called a partner in healing. We would like to expand our budget by $5,000 this year, to help more individuals and families affected by the second intifada who continue to suffer the long-term after-effects of terrorism.

Widowed In All But Name

In late 2003, Hands On Tzedakah made a grant to support "Group 12" of the Organization to Support the Fiancées of Fallen Soldiers of the Israel Defense Force. A mother with a daughter, whose fiancée was killed four months before they were to be married, took it upon herself to find a way for that daughter to cope and rebuild her life. That was in 1997; that was "Group 1." "Group 16" opened in April 2006 and Hands On Tzedakah funded it. A professional therapist meets with the girlfriends and boyfriends of the fallen soldiers individually and then in a group setting for 2 hours per week for one year. The Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006 produced many more young women facing the most terrible tragedy and trauma of their young lives. "Group 17" and "Group 18" were formed and Hands On Tzedakah once again ‘stepped-up' and sent funds so the groups could begin. Group 18 was paid for by a designated contribution by one of our donors.

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