Ma'ase Center (SV28)
With the outbreak of the war, Ma’ase Center moved all of its volunteering activities from routine volunteering to emergency volunteering all over the country, including the establishment of volunteering centers in cooperation with the local authorities, aiding in distributing food, medicine, and operating an aid center for the elderly, evacuation of shelters, and running informal educational activities for children and families of evacuees, etc.
In the last month, 938 volunteers helped more than 3000 citizens, including children, elders, teenagers, parents, etc. The activity began on October 9 and is expected to continue for another 6-8 weeks, and as time goes by, we increase and diversify the volunteering according to needs that arise from the field, such as volunteering in agricultural harvesting, etc. In addition, later on, Ma’ase Center will assist in holding educational activities for groups of young people between the ages of 16-18 who were evacuated from Sderot and are currently in the Dead Sea.
Itai Hazan, 18 years old, a participant of Ma’ase in the Galilee Pre-army program (in Tiberias) says:
“One of the days I was at the hotel, a single mother with her two children approached us and asked to babysit her children for an hour because she needed to make a phone call.
Although we were assigned to run educational-social activities and not to babysit children, we recognized that she needed assistance. we couldn’t say no, so my friend Ma’ayan from the Mechina and I volunteered to help. Since it was a Thursday night, Maayan and I had to return home to our families, but we couldn’t find the mother.
After a few hours, we finally got a hold of her. We saw how difficult the situation is for the families, and realized that the mother needed a break and time to herself. It really made us understand how critical our position is for the families and children”
Sabin and Hila, participants of the Academy for Shared Leadership program (HaMidrasha) say:
“Following the Iron Swards War, the Thai and Palestinian farmers who worked in the Gaza envelope left, and there is a severe shortage of employees. Without the volunteers, the fruits and vegetables would have remained on the trees and in the fields, resulting in a significant financial loss. We wanted to come and help with harvesting, both to ensure that the veggies and fruits reach the markets and to instill in whatever manner that our future here is shared”.
Hossein Meshivali, an instructor at HaMidrash says:
“I hear about Smotrich’s initiative to ban the mesik in the Palestinian villages and I see what we are doing here in the ‘fields of the Valley’ farm. I believe it as an appropriate civil response to fight racism and show that we are all still united”.