SEE YOUR IMPACT
Meet Galine and Esther
Life has always been very difficult for Galine, 73, and her mother Esther, 95, yet they have persevered together through it all. While living in the Ukraine, Esther’s husband was drafted into the Russian army, and he has not been heard from him since.
Read more
Project Facts:
- Each one of the 134,000 needy elderly will be given a grant of 150NIS ($40) to help pay their electric bill during the months of February-March by IFCJ.
- Of the 134,000 elderly who will be receiving this aid, 24,000 live in particularly cold parts of the country. (There are 41 areas designated by the State as particularly "cold".)
- IFCJ has been providing support to the elderly in Israel during the winter months for the last four years.
- Donations since 2007 through this winter total more than $13 million, much of which has been raised from the U.S. Christian community.
YAEL'S CORNER
A Woman I Will Never Forget
My heater broke yesterday, and the weather in Jerusalem is very cold. I am sitting here writing while bundled in many layers, but I'm still shivering. Yet each time I begin to feel sorry for myself and my family, I think of Shifra, an 80-year-old woman with short, frizzy gray hair and blue eyes like an angel, who I met last week in Jerusalem… Read more
The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews has donated $5 million to help pay the heating bills of Israel's neediest elderly citizens. The State of Israel partially subsidizes the electric bills of this population, yet even with this assistance the majority still cannot afford to pay the balance of their heating bill during the winter. One recent study showed that one-third of all elderly Israelis have had to forgo heating their homes in order to buy food and medicine.
Thanks to the Fellowship's donation, more than 134,000 elderly residents throughout Israel will receive a grant of approximately 150 shekels, or about $40, for the cold months of February and March.
This is the first time in Israel that a philanthropic organization has transferred its donation directly to the Electric Corp., which will deduct the sum from the personal electric bills of each eligible recipient. This method was chosen in order to preserve the dignity of recipients, and to ensure that the donations reached the recipients as quickly and efficiently as possible.
SEE YOUR IMPACT
Others Being Helped
Shlomo, 75, immigrated to Israel from Russia at a very young age. He loved living in Israel and worked hard to support his wife and daughter. Shlomo lived a simple but happy life in Israel until his wife got sick and passed away. Read more
Pashimo is an 83-year-old woman who is kind, loving, and soft spoken. She is very poor and is bound to a wheelchair because her legs are completely paralyzed the result of the removal of a brain tumor doctors discovered 20 years ago. Read more
Even in Israel, winter can be severe. Especially for the elderly poor… Thinking of frail, elderly people living in unheated rooms and apartments during this kind of cold brings the true picture into sharp focus. As one older Israeli man told a Fellowship worker, "People don't realize how cold it gets in Israel in the winter!" Read more
SEE YOUR IMPACT
'Thank You With All My Heart!'
Elderly recipients and their family members sent thank-you notes to tell The Fellowship how much they appreciated the gift of heat this winter. Eligible recipients received a grant of about $40 (150 NIS/shekels) toward their heating bill for February and March. Read more
|
