This week, our President and Global CEO, Yael Eckstein, and Fellowship staff toured Fellowship-supported projects in southern Israel.
The first stop was Beit Daniella in Moshav Shibolim, a specialized therapeutic center for young adults in communities surrounding Gaza. Beit Daniella director Malka shared the story of how she opened the center eight years ago because of her daughter, Daniella.
“Daniella was a bright and successful young woman who developed anorexia at the age of 13,” she said. “We looked everywhere (for a program that combines school, therapy, meals, and social support). There was no such thing. Without the comprehensive care she needed, Daniella eventually took her own life. We understood that there was a hole in the system; we weren’t going to wait for the next child to fall into this hole.”
Beit Daniella serves adolescents and young adults ages 13 to 18. Participants attend five days a week, eight hours a day, for four to six months, receiving psychiatric care, family counseling, and educational support. The trauma of October 7 has caused a spike in demand for these services, while access remains limited.
The second visit was to the Trauma Center in Sdot Negev, which was established in the wake of October 7. Like Beit Daniella, it serves communities around Gaza that were most affected by Hamas’ reign of terror. The center supports not only adolescents, but entire families, providing both mental and physical care.
Tamir Idan, head of the Sdot Negev Council, said, “We see people who say, ‘We were murdered on that Saturday.’ They return home and realize they no longer have the inner space to cope. We are not the Center of the events anymore, but the number of people seeking help kept growing. When government funding was unavailable, The Fellowship stepped in to help expand the Center’s treatment capacity. Thanks to you, we were able to create another treatment space.”
The third stop was a meeting with Vered Libstein in Kfar Aza. Vered lost her husband, Ofir, head of the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council, on October 7. Her son, Nitzan, and her mother were also murdered that day. Ofir had been serving as a medic on the emergency response team during the attacks and was killed near his home. Vered later learned from her eldest son that his grandmother had been killed when terrorists invaded neighboring homes before reaching theirs. Nitzan managed to make it to the safe room but was shot through the door.
Vered remembers, “For 12 days he was listed as missing. We were already working with the IDF unit responsible for captives and missing persons, and we truly believed he had been taken to Gaza. It would have suited Nitzan’s character to survive and endure. Later we learned that at around 4:30 or 5:00 p.m., soldiers from the Duvdevan Unit entered this area. Omri Michaeli (a soldier) was killed, and another soldier was critically wounded and later died on the way to the hospital. The soldiers encountered four terrorists inside Nitzan’s room.”
With The Fellowship’s support, a new treatment center is being established in Kfar Aza. After nearly three years of displacement, 30% of residents are expected to return by the end of the summer. They will need support to heal and recover as a community.
The fourth and final visit was to Nahal Oz, where The Fellowship has donated equipment to local kindergartens ahead of the upcoming school year. The schools had been closed since October 7 and required extensive renovations. Without these donations, they would not have been able to reopen.
“I have posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest” (Isaiah 62:6).
