Educator: Yahel Faraj
Date: 03/22/2020
Place: Haifa
Second installment of An Educators’ Coronavirus Diary, by Yahel Faraj, member of Dror Israel’s Educators’ Community in Hadar, Haifa Every day more and more volunteers are joining the group, but the needs are also growing. Yesterday, 15 of our volunteers distributed 180 meal trays to senior citizens. Each tray is supposed to last for two days, but because the state has converted the school meals program to serve senior citizens, the small portions may not suffice. The city has no reserves, and city staff and social workers are depending on us as both volunteers and donors. If this situation continues, things will get really bad. We’re already sure that there are lots of people that we aren’t reaching, because they weren’t registered with the city’s welfare department. The volunteers are giving everything they can: cooking, buying groceries out of their own pockets, and taking it to those who need it. On Thursday evening, we held a video conference for all of the volunteers and heard a bit about how everyone was doing, and talked about the importance of volunteering. We shall see how we move forward and find ways to meet additional needs.
Date: 03/18/2020
An update from Dror Israel’s Educators’ Community in the Hadar neighborhood in Haifa, which is organizing volunteers to help any neighborhood residents who require assistance
2 volunteers bought medication for senior citizens
10 people in home isolation received plates of humus
100 hot meals delivered to senior citizens throughout Haifa
Cooking for one family in the neighborhood
Games and toys distributed to families with children
Yahel, a member of Dror Israel’s Educators’ Community in Haifa, writes: After recruiting 100 volunteers on Thursday, today we really got to work. There are so many dillemas: how do you tell a senior that you are bringing them a hot meal, that you can’t come inside for a glass of water, but if they want you can install Zoom for them? How do you take care of the volunteers both medically and psychologically? If this was just a regular war, we would meet with them, but what should we do now? Hadar is a very complicated neighborhood, with diverse religious, national identities, and lots of low-income households. We’re translating everything into Arabic and Russian, but what about the Eritrean family, and the Pilipino workers? We’re only at the first stages, organizing our forces, but it’s clear that we are facing a difficult operation. We’re getting ready for the weekend, concerned that the situation will get worse and that the authorities here are not equipped. It’s good that we have one another.