An Interview with the Friendship Circle of Ashkelon, Israel
By Gila Akselrad - Associate Advisor of the FC Volunteer Leadership Board
Translated from the original Hebrew

Gila: Why did you want to start a Friendship Circle in Ashkelon and when did you open?

FC Ashkelon: We started our Friendship Circle at the beginning of the school year, in September 2007. Here in Ashkelon, there are 1200 students, ranging from a year old to high school age, learning in the Chabad network of schools. We saw that many of the children with special needs needed assistance in the afternoons for several reasons.

1) The majority of the families in Ashkelon are in difficult socio-economic situations. Therefore, they cannot afford to pay for help either for the child, or for the mother who must deal with going to work, the upkeep of her home and routine house work, raising her children, all in addition to caring for the specific needs of her child with special needs. The financial hardship in the majority of these cases even prevents the child from receiving professional care.

2) The difficult security situation in Ashkelon is very stressful for the children and causes a lot of tension. This makes it exceedingly difficult to care for all of the children, and especially those children with emotional and psychological problems.
In light of these reasons we saw the necessity to establish a Friendship Circle in Ashkelon, to support these families and make it easier for them to help their children with special needs progress. While the volunteers are with the children, the parents benefit from this time when they can attend to their other children, or rest and rejuvenate themselves so they will have the necessary strength to continue to care for their child with special needs. The children benefit from the advanced level of care, and the professional therapy available to them as well as from the loving bond that they have with their volunteers.
The Volunteers undergo a series of training workshops were they can consult with professionals on a constant basis so they can receive guidance on how to help the children progress.
We are now in the middle of building a center for the FC which will include, among other things, rooms for the professionals who work with the kids as well as rooms for various therapies, such as the Snoezelan* room, a playground, as well as a lending library of special games. The purpose of our center is to be a welcoming home for children with special needs and their families.

Gila: How many kids and volunteers do you have?

Gila: Do you find that Israeli teens are responsive to the idea of helping children with special needs?

FC Ashkelon: Before we started, it was hard to get volunteers, but as a result of the positive response and the success of our first volunteers, the supply is greater than the demand and we already have more volunteers interested in joining than we ever imagined.

Gila: Are the teens committed to helping?

FC Ashkelon: As in every in the world - there are more dedicated volunteers and less dedicated volunteers; but in general, the volunteers are attached to the kids they help, and when they see how much their volunteering means to the children and the families they become even get more dedicated and devoted.

Gila: Do you think that the current security situation in Ashkelon (the rockets)** is affecting the teens in their volunteering, either negatively or positively?

FC Ashkelon: Yes, there is a tremendous affect due to the security situation. One the one hand, the volunteers, feel a natural eagerness to join in an effort that helps others, given the tense situation. Also, the children need more support from the volunteers which also strengthens their dedication. On the other hand, there are times that the volunteers are unable to leave their homes to go visit the family where they volunteer because there is a rocket attack and they must stay in a sheltered area. There are also other times when they can’t take the child outside and they have to entertain them for hours on end either at home or in a sheltered area. That’s why we need help to finish building our playground and our special-game lending library soon, so it will be easier for the volunteers.

Gila: Are there many families in Israel with children with special needs?

FC Ashkelon: In Israel, according to the global average, 12% of the children have special needs. In Ashkelon, the percentage is slightly higher because of its socio-economic level. Also, there isn’t really enough awareness or available resources to solve problems that need attention and therefore, many children are left with special needs even if they are solvable issues. Currently, the tension from the dangerous circumstance here, aggravate and intensify many aspects of the difficulties that the children have, and even trigger new problems in children that managed very well when the surrounding environment.

Gila: Are they isolated at all from society?

FC Ashkelon: Within the framework of our FC, although it is still small, we have a wide range of special needs, ranging from language problems to gross motor related difficulties to severe retardation. Therefore, there are differences in the levels of social integration of every child. We have a family with two daughters who both have severe retardation. They learn in a special school and neither have ever made any social connections andtherefore, they are entirely disconnected socially. On the other hand, we have another girl with language difficulties and she learns in our language preschool and she does have friends from preschool. Asmentioned before, we are trying to finish our FC center by the beginning of this coming schoolyear since it will serve as a home for all children with special needs, where they can meet friends and create a supportive social community. This is how we will be able to grow our FC in this area.

*Involves exposure to a soothing and stimulating environment. Specially designed to deliver stimuli to various senses, using lighting effects, color, sounds, music, scents, etc. The combination of different materials on a wall may be explored using tactile senses, and the floor may be adjusted to stimulate the sense of balance. Check out our Resource Center for a link to more information and pictures.

**Editor's Note: As we go to "press" we learn of a rocket attack on an Askelon shopping mall, wounding 15 people. Among the wounded is a little girl, Tair bat Avital, as well as her mother, Avital bat Penina. Tair attends a daycare center which is part of the Chabad School Network mentioned above. We pray for a speedy and complete recovery for them as well as all of those wounded.