When terrorists first swarmed across the Gaza border on the morning of October 7, 2023, the initial, desperate response from staff and teachers just a few kilometers away at World ORT’s Kfar Silver Youth Village at Ashkelon was clear – to protect our students.

But after the immediate shock of those dark first days, the past 12 months have seen the unfolding of a traumatic experience beyond anyone’s worst expectations. Our staff and teachers have responded continuously to a myriad of essential needs for their students and colleagues, while suffering their own personal losses and tragedies.

World ORT Kadima Mada – our operational arm in Israel – serves around 10,000 students of all ages in schools, extra-curricular programmes and other initiatives across the country.

World ORT’s Response

As an educational organisation, we have strived to provide our students at schools and centres in Israel, and throughout the diaspora, with the strength and support they need to learn and grow – and now also to process the trauma they have experienced while building resilience to the horrors of terrorism and war.

During the first weeks after the attacks, many students were already displaying post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms or acute anxiety.

We offered comprehensive psychological support packages, including one-on-one and group sessions for students. World ORT Kadima Mada staff began to provide dedicated, tailored support to individuals. There were therapeutic workshops in subjects including science, robotics, coding and virtual reality, which proved to be a lifeline.

More than 2,000 children were reached within the first month, both in the northern and southern peripheries of Israel, gaining some semblance of normality through these lessons.

“The sense of security in one’s home is damaged,” explained Royi Yablochnik, Kfar Silver’s lead psychologist. “We need to find a way to calm the mind. I give the students and staff exercises on how to do this.”

World ORT Kadima Mada extended its support provision to more than 4,000 students across 44 evacuation centres and introduced an additional opportunity: international respite trips. The trip schedules included rehabilitation sessions with a team of consultants, social workers, and psychologists.

Our Next Steps

As 2024 continues and we prepare to enter the second year of the war amid ongoing threats to Israel, we continue to focus our efforts on the delivery of a structured schedule of activities for displaced children. These will continue in evacuee centres and schools as well as our provision of extra-curricular courses and programmes.

Our specialist mental health programme of counselling and therapeutic activities is continuing for students at Kfar Silver. This includes individual therapy, group therapy, and creative approaches – such as horse therapy and krav maga – for students struggling to verbalize their emotions. Dedicated specialist sessions take place for Ukrainian students who fled war in their own country and settled at Kfar Silver.

World ORT Kadima Mada will continue to offer small, one-time grants to support student and staff needs such as iPads, Tablets, cell phones and other technological equipment for learning; gift packages for instructors; support for those with relatives serving in the IDF.

Dr. Moshe Leiba, World ORT Kadima Mada’s Chief Pedagogy Officer, tells us:

“Since the war began, World ORT Kadima Mada programmes have had profound and positive effects on our students and staff. Through flexible learning models, robust psychological support and leveraging technology, we have successfully maintained educational continuity and enhanced emotional resilience.”

Ongoing support is crucial to address the immediate needs and World ORT expresses profound gratitude for the funds raised thus far, enabling us to advance this vital work.

We urge you to DONATE HERE, to enable us to continue offering these much-needed services.

Thank you for your continued support.