Faces of The Fellowship: Limor

The Fellowship  |  September 7, 2016

Limor is a 33-year-old single mother living in Israel. She’s raising two young daughters and a son, all between the ages of 5 to 9. Limor participates in The Fellowship‘s Azimut mentoring program, which helps young adults develop their abilities so they can enter the Israeli workforce from a place of confidence and success. In Hebrew, azimut means “bearings,” and the program helps clients get their bearing so they can move forward in life successfully.

“The reason I wanted to join the Azimut program,” says Limor, “is because I was hoping to find sustainable work to raise my children. Until The Fellowship coordinator contacted me, I had always felt there was something preventing me from moving ahead and succeeding.”

Limor applied for assistance at the Department of Welfare and was assigned a caseworker, but she had dreams of supporting her family without this assistance.

“I understood that I needed to find something that would provide me with flexible hours [because of my children],” says Limor. “Whenever I thought about part-time work, however, I thought about low-paying jobs that didn’t require any special skills. On my own I couldn’t figure out how I would ever rise above my situation.”

Together with The Fellowship‘s Azimut coordinator, Limor began identifying her monthly expenses to see where she was spending most of her money.

“The Azimut coordinator wanted to help me examine how I was managing my finances and to see if there was any way I could cut down on expenditures. I’m a single mother who’s dependent on welfare. Sometimes I wondered how I made it through the day, let alone the month.”

Once the Azimut coordinator took a closer look at Limor’s bills, she was able to help her look for solutions. “As you can imagine, my food bill was a significant monthly expense,” says Limor. “The coordinator got in touch with non-profit organizations that help with food. She was able to find an organization that provides me with food on a monthly basis. This was a significant help.”

Next the coordinator helped Limor look for a job. They both knew Limor needed a stable income to support her family, and so they began looking at jobs that required little training, since Limor didn’t go to school. But soon, the coordinator realized Limor had bigger dreams for her career.

“The truth of the matter is that I actually thought it was a bit outrageous on my part to think about self-fulfillment at the same time that I need to provide for my children. But the coordinator never told me I was being silly. She always listened to me and encouraged me to dream.

“I thought about the things I love most in life and how I can integrate them into a profession. I love children and animals. I want to run workshops for children and introduce them to nature’s different creatures. Children love animals and animals make children smile. This is a wonderful combination.”

Currently, Limor and the Azimut coordinator are putting together a business plan. “We’re discussing concepts such as pricing and how best to build the business. At a later stage we’ll work on designing a business card and flyers, as well as marketing the business,” says Limor.

Limor feels so grateful for this Fellowship mentoring program! She knows her life will completely change for the better thanks to The Fellowship.

“Every meeting with the Azimut coordinator gives me more hope for a successful future. I can even say that these meetings are the best thing to happen to me recently. I finally feel positively about myself, and I’m finally doing the things that I never dared. Now that The Fellowship is giving me this help, I feel as if the future is bright. I’d like to say thank you to The Fellowship donors who are funding this program!”

Learn how you can help others in need like Limor receive lifesaving help.