Earlier in May, our President and Global CEO Yael Eckstein participated in a tour with staff of Fellowship-funded projects in southern Israel. The tour included projects that were started in response to October 7, 2023, when this region experienced the worst terror attacks on that fateful morning. These places need healing after a tragedy so great it still sits with them years later. The local kindergartens in the town of Nahal Oz have been closed since then but are reopened now, thanks to The Fellowship.
Yael says, “Now is the time where we’re starting to rebuild the lives of these people who need the comfort more than ever before. And what The Fellowship learned is that one of the most important locations to rebuild is the kindergartens. We learned that we needed to renovate these kindergartens otherwise the children wouldn’t be able to come back.”
Not only did The Fellowship help rebuild these kindergartens, but we also resupplied them for a new school year after missing the last few. This included toys, games, furniture, school supplies, and even fixing up their bomb shelters. Now, they don’t even feel like shelters anymore but extensions of the classroom where students can feel safe and welcome just as they are in school.
“Without The Fellowship’s support, these kindergartens could not reopen. We continue praying for quieter days, and until then, we need to rebuild. We need to equip these heroes to live lives of fullness, of strength, of resilience, of hope, of knowing they’re not alone,” said Yael.
“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it” (Proverbs 22:6).
