Many of these citizens of tomorrow start life with disadvantages of one kind or another so when the Karmiel Social Services Department offered a way to help we decided to choose one of their suggestions.

‘Bayit Cham’ in Karmiel provides a 'warm home' for adolescent girls who come from dysfunctional families. They have been brought up without a nurturing atmosphere, usually with no regular meals and oftern with abuse or violence at home. Consequently some of these youngsters adopt aggression as a safety valve for their pent-up emotions.

The Bayit Cham coordinator suggested that we use our donation to purchase Thai kick-boxing equipment. This request seemed a little odd but they explained that this activity helps to harmlessly channel the girls' aggression which could otherwise lead to fights or common assault, ending up in a magistrates’ court.

Under strict professional supervision, the girls can now, thanks to ESRA Karmiel's efforts, punch and kick their frustrations away without injuring anyone.

We received a polite ‘thank-you’ letter from the coordinator, later followed by an invitation to our committee to come for a light lunch at Bayit Cham, to receive a personal thanks and, of course, view the sports equipment for which we had raised the necessary funds.

Hearing at first hand about the work of this warm home for at-risk teenagers certainly helped to give our Branch Committee a sense of purpose to all the social and cultural events that we plan during the year.

All of us came away feeling just a little more proud that they had accomplished what ESRA does best — Make a Difference!

Original article written for the ESRA Magazine by Brian Fink, Chairman of ESRA Karmiel/Misgav Tel: 054 229 1276