The Ethiopian immigrant population of Israel face extreme challenges upon their arrival in the country.   The differences of these two countries are huge and most of these people have never had to pay rent or an electricity bill.  Some have never worn shoes.  Amidst a cycle of extreme poverty and dependence on welfare they also suffer from job discrimination and lack of knowledge about their rights as workers.  In the Azorim neighborhood of Netanya, a group of men who had been working as gardeners were unable to support their families due to their poor working conditions.  Most of them earned less than the minimum wage,  received no money if it rained, had no pension or sick pay.  Twelve such men joined together to create a Gardening Cooperative.  Together, they found a manger who taught them their rights and helped them find working contracts. However, it soon became clear, that they needed a truck and  electrical gardening equipment in order to be able to take on larger and more financially rewarding projects.  

With the money they received from myisrael, the group were able to purchase a trailer to transport their equipment, invested in necessary tools including a hedge trimmer and an electric mower and made vital repairs to existing equipment.   There are now twelve men working in the co-operative and they have successfullynegotiated a permanent contract with Netanya municipality for large gardening projects.  Rami, who heads up the group told us "These men are hardworking and dedicated.  They have 47 children between them to support and finally they can start to make ends meet and to feel proud of their achievement.  We hope that other communities will be inspired to follow their lead.  We want to say a big thank you to myisrael for making this possible".

Pesach is a really difficult time for those living in poverty. Whilst so many of us celebrate Pesach with the (substantial) seder meal and treats throughout the week, there are others who barely have enough food to feed their families the basic necessities. The Beit Shean Foodbank prepares and distributes hot food to underprivileged families in the Beit Shean area every Shabbat and for holidays. Every week they supply food to an average of 100 needy families and other elderly singles but there are always people lining up at the distribution centre for any leftovers. This Pesach, as a result of the funds that myisrael was able to forward to the foodbank, a further 100 families and 30 single elders received food packages to last them the whole of Pesach. Meir, who manages this 100% volunteer-run operation, asked us to pass on a huge thank you to all those people whose donations were directed to the foodbank through myisrael, particularly to those at j-gift (Glasgow informal Free Teaching) and the Garnett Hill Hebrew Congregation in Glasgow.

myisrael is proud to announce that we reached our fundraising target for the Garden of Hope nursery within just a few weeks of our launch.
The Garden of Hope nursery in Ashkelon was founded and is run by Aviva and Eliyahu, who look after 26 Ethiopian children aged one to three, six days a week.
These children come from a very low socio-economic background and the nursery offers parents a low cost solution to childcare so that they can go out and work. We were shocked when we saw the state of their old minibus which was constantly breaking down and in need of expensive repairs.  Eliyahu picks up the children each morning and this is such an important service to their parents. 

Thanks to a generous donation from the estate of the late Fred Wolffing, as well as other donations and funds raised via a trek in the Golan, we were able to purchase a new minibus for the nursery.

A huge thank you to all those who contributed to this purchase.