israel Green charity

Rockets and Poverty – Sderot, the rest of the story

Posted by admin under Uncategorized

The people of Sderot live (if you can call it that) a life of dodging rockets and dodging poverty. While the rest of us cannot help but struggle to comprehend what its like to live with daily rocket attacks, we do not even think of the the rampant poverty in Sderot.

Haaretz writes of a man who comes with a 100 Shekel food voucher and yet has 240 shekels of groceries in his cart. He returns 140 shekels of food (about $35 worth) to the shelves.

It is reported that only the lowest income families have remained in Sderot.

You see, between the attacks, when lowest income, hourly wage workers are in the bomb shelters, they are not earning a living. It is reported that productivity is down by 70%. Obviously a situation that cannot be tolerated, not only not by the people of Sderot, but at least as much, not by us. I take the risk of including a link right here in this post, to allow our readers to donate now, and help keep our brothers and sisters in Sderot fed.

How bad is it?

Posted by admin under Disposable Income, Poverty in Israel

This report from the Israel News Agency describes just how severe the situation is in Israel. The writers use hair-raising concept of “Nutritionaly Insecure” to describe just how deprived some families are. When parents need to withold basic nutrition from themeselves in order to try and properly feed their children, that is bad enough. When malnutrition reaches the children, it is one step away from homelessness. 1,600,000 Israelis “live” without enough food. Read the full report here.

So what can be done?

Posted by admin under Solutions to Poverty

To suggest that the government should do something about poverty is on the one hand a correct statement. To leave it at that however, fails to take into account “the other side of the story”. And that other side… is the people. Yes! The people in poverty, or the parents who misguide their children and set them up to be poor in their adulthood are just as responsible.

I found a testimony given by Isabel V. Sawhill to the Brookings Institute that makes a very good case for needing both government and private citizens to each do their part. Government must have the right economic policies in place, including appropriate and realistic (for the wage earner) minimum wage laws; the best educational systems, etc.

The people must WORK, avoid behaviors that lead to poverty, such as overbudening society with out of wed-lock children, or perhaps (I dare say…) not having too many children if we cannot afford them, etc.

The point? All parties must do their part. Here is Sawhill’s full report.

Israeli Soldiers in Poverty

Posted by admin under Poverty in Israel, Solutions to Poverty

It is hard to describe the shock, dismay and utter disappointment I felt when I receive the email. Here in Israel, where our soldiers are looked up to as the symbols of courage and self sacrifice, I could not believe what I read.

Our online request system was used by a division officer of the Israel Defense Forces from the Modiin area to ask for assistance for 5 families in his unit living in utter poverty. M.C. (as I shall refer to him) turned to Karmey Hesed to help these families. M.C. was appalled to think that he demands top performance from his soldiers, elite combat soldiers at that, and yet their children and wives don’t even have enough to eat. How could these soldiers concentrate on the task at hand knowing that their children are at home without the basics of survival at home.

With the help of G-D, Karmey Hesed was able to find a donor to sponsor these families completely. Yes! One person has taken them all under his wing. M.C., our caring officer was in tears when I told him of the good news.

Charity Starts at Home

Posted by admin under Poverty in Israel, Solutions to Poverty

I came across a great post at the Israel Chronicles blog. The writer rightly (and nicely) points out that charity starts at home. The thought I have is that charity, as the writer points out, is not all about money. Its about making life easier for our fellow human beings. See her post here.

That can be done with food, clothing, and yes, even breast milk. See the full post here.

Gone Fishin…

Posted by admin under Solutions to Poverty

There is a well known proverb that says:

Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime.

I found an extension to this that continues:

Teach a man to sell fish and he eats steak.

This addition says allot. Poverty needs a solution. The solution comes in the form of charity at the highest level. Yes, the needy must be fed and cared for or else they would die of hunger, or at least become more unhealthy either in their physical well being and/or in their social well being by turning to crime to make ends meet.

The solution to poverty must include however, bringing the needy “client” (oh, how I hate that word) to self suffiecency. Not easily done, I admit. Either because of the psychological and/or emotional state of the poor, or even more dificult to change, the economic reality the poor reside in. Whatever the case, solutions must be implemented on a holistic level.