Emergency Fundraiser for Chimes Israel's Families with Disabilities due to Gaza War

The people with disabilities and their families who Chimes Israel serves are invisible victims of the war between Hamas and Israel. With our early childhood and adult rehabilitative day care centers closed, our people need more help than ever.

Experiencing a constant barrage of rockets, many Chimes Israel families in the South are hiding in their air raid shelters all day and night because their disabilities prevent them from making that 15 second escape to the shelter. With all the stores in the area closed, many have told us that they need the basics such as food and medicine.
Many of our Chimes parents have low paying per diem jobs, such as house cleaner, caregiver and construction worker. Now unable to work because they are at home caring for their children (and their spouse has been called up to serve in the army), they are falling deeper into poverty.
Our centers feed our clients breakfast and lunch. With those essential meals now provided at home, it is like having another mouth to feed.
Israel’s leaders say the war is likely to continue for a long time. We know from other conflicts that the lack of daily physical therapy can have a critical effect on our clients’ lifelong abilities. Our clients need home equipment to get their essential therapy.
We also know from past conflicts, many of staff, children, and parents will develop PTSD from the constant barrage of rockets. Social workers and therapists are reaching out to our staff, clients and their families. We will also bring in these professionals when the centers reopen.

Coping with the rocket fire and sheltering is traumatic for everyone, however, the Chimes families with young children deal with increased emotional and physical hardships due to their children’s disabilities. “The challenges of being closed-in for a long time in a protected space are intensified for toddlers with disabilities whose routines have been disrupted, said Vered Carsenti, a social worker and Chimes Israel’s Program Director. “Children are dependent on their parents for emotional assurance. When they see their parents’ anxiety as they hustle everyone into the shelter, all confidence is undermined.”

Roy’s Story: In the last conflict with Gaza, With no safe room in their apartment, the family of the Shaked center’s three-year-old Roy, who has autism, was forced to shelter in his building’s basement bomb shelter during the rocket fire. For this young child with autism, the overwhelming sensory stimulation of the booming rocket noise along with the neighbors’ hysteria, triggered nonstop meltdowns with screaming, crying, and lashing out.
Emily’s Story: Another little Shaked center girl, Emily, lost the freedom to move around a room during the entire 11 days of Gazan hostility. Unable to walk without a standing walker, the family could not risk using it during the entire conflict. This is because it took more time to get in and out of the walker than the 15 seconds allotted to make it down to the shelter. Because the walker is also training her to walk independently, her progress at the center also suffered extreme setbacks.

The Needs of Our Invisible War Victims

Essential items – families of clients and staff need daily requisites such as medicines, toiletries, diapers, food, clothing.
Equipment at home – to maintain treatment at home our clients need activated chairs, physiology equipment, special screens, speech therapy programs and many other items.
Technology for maintaining contact – We desperately need more laptop computers and tablets to maintain contact with our staff, clients and their families. The preschool teachers and adult counselors keep contact and provide services via zoom, as do the paramedical providers such as physiotherapists, speech and occupational therapists, social workers and many others.
Counseling – we seek donations to fund psychological counseling, which we have already started providing to staff, clients and their families. In Ashkelon, the sirens are non-stop. For our clients, it is terrifying, especially due to the fact that they don't understand what is going on. This counseling will continue for some time after the war ends.