Israel-Gaza War Fundraiser for Disability Families

Chimes Israel's ongoing commitment to supporting children with disabilities and their families in Ashkelon has taken on new urgency in light of recent security challenges. Originally focused on providing families with essential items like food, medicine, and therapy during the Gaza conflict, this fundraiser's focus has now shifted toward an even more vital and sustainable solution: the construction of a new, fortified Early Childhood Center. This center will allow children with disabilities to continue receiving the care they need, even during periods of conflict.

The Ashkelon Early Childhood Centers: A Current Crisis

Ashkelon, despite being one of the most heavily targeted cities by Gaza rocket fire, is a rapidly growing urban center in Israel. As demand for rehabilitative daycare services increases, Chimes Israel has been working hard to expand its early childhood programs. Currently, the organization operates in four repurposed residential homes. These spaces are overcrowded, lack wheelchair access, and are not equipped with adequate air raid protection.

In the event of a security escalation, children and staff only have 30 seconds to reach a safe room, but with limited space and obstacles such as stairs, many children with mobility challenges face insurmountable barriers. One of the centers doesn’t even have a safe room at all. During past emergencies, children and staff were forced to cope with these inadequacies, triggering heightened anxiety and distress.

The Hamas-Israel War: A Catalyst for Change

The onset of the Hamas-Israel war in 2023 brought the inadequacies of the current centers into stark focus. The Homefront Command ordered the temporary closure of our centers, leaving families isolated in shelters as rockets flew overhead. Families with disabled children struggled not only with the fear of the escalating conflict but also with dwindling resources and an inability to secure essential items, such as food, medicine, and diapers. Many families, with their spouses called up to the military, were left without income while they stayed home to care for their children.

Recognizing the immediate need, Chimes Israel quickly established a wartime emergency fund to help alleviate these hardships. Thanks to the generosity of GlobalGiving and other donors, Chimes was able to deliver critical support: from remote learning tools like laptops and iPads to therapy equipment and supermarket gift cards. Our staff also provided weekly home visits, braving rocket fire to ensure families' emotional and physical well-being during the crisis.

Despite these efforts, when children returned to the centers, many displayed significant developmental setbacks, underscoring the situation's urgency. The war highlighted how essential it is to provide consistent, uninterrupted care for children with disabilities. 

The Urgent Need for a New Early Childhood Center

With war intensifying the demand for a secure, consistent place for children with disabilities to receive care, Chimes Israel has recognized that the existing facilities are no longer adequate. In response, we have intensified our efforts to build a new, state-of-the-art Early Childhood Center in Ashkelon. The Ashkelon municipality has granted Chimes Israel land for this project, and plans have already been drawn up for a building that can accommodate 80 children.

The new facility will be purpose-built to serve the needs of children ages six months to three years with autism, developmental delays, genetic disorders, and other disabilities. This will include comprehensive services such as early childhood education, therapy, diagnostics, and parental support. Furthermore, the building will be fortified to ensure safety in the event of a security escalation, with a large protected area, accessible classrooms, therapy rooms, and playgrounds to foster learning, play, and development.

The construction of a new, fortified Early Childhood Center is no longer a long-term aspiration—it is a critical, urgent need. The war in Gaza exposed the vulnerabilities of our current facilities and underscored the necessity of creating a space where children can receive consistent care, education, and therapy, even in times of crisis. The new center will not only ensure the safety of the children but will also provide a comprehensive, integrated approach to early childhood rehabilitation, which is essential for their developmental progress. This facility will give families in Ashkelon peace of mind, knowing that their children will be safe and well-cared-for, regardless of the security challenges that may arise.

We thank you for your ongoing support in this vital mission, and we look forward to continuing our work together to build a brighter, more secure future for the children of Ashkelon.

Links:

• Chimes Israel Ashkelon During Gaza War

Chimes Israel is a 33-year-old NGO that provides therapeutic daytime solutions for more than 1,400 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in 25 centers throughout Israel.  Our services and programs include early childhood rehabilitative care, after-school clubs, supported employment, leisure and enrichment programs, adult rehabilitative nursing care, community groups, and multifaceted mental health support services. Our mission is to do all we can to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities through cutting-edge professional services and programs. Our clients range in age from infant to elderly and are from all sectors of the population, regardless of ethnicity, religion, politics, nationality, age, or gender. 

Now that our centers have reopened after the initial crisis of the war, we have assessed the gaps in our service capabilities related to handling crises. Workers have told us that every security escalation causes floods of anxiety. This is because they do not have a plan, applicable skills, or tools for coping with the challenges. Recognizing the need to get through the trauma and become better prepared for other emergencies we decided to launch an organization-wide staff Resilience Training Program.  

The resilience training is underway and we are told that it is helping our employees improve their interpersonal communication, engage in better techniques for coping with stress, and better manage security vulnerabilities and crises. The program is helping our employees learn how to cope with stressful situations and intervene better in times of emergency. They are learning to better care for and impart this knowledge to our service recipients with disabilities at their cognitive levels.

For our staff members not directly affected by the war, the training is helping with the ongoing daily toll of caring for our dependent population. The work has a high burnout rate due to challenging workplace demands, difficult service recipient behavior, chronic stress, emotional exhaustion, low pay, and a lack of personal accomplishment.

Leading the training are professionals from NATAL (National Trauma Victims), a non-profit organization for raising trauma awareness across Israeli society. NATAL's team of facilitators includes therapists from mental health professions who are experts on stress, trauma, crisis intervention, and resilience. They have created a curriculum tailored to the individual needs of each Chimes Israel audience including executive management, center managers, and staff who work directly with people with disabilities. We have also designated one representative from each Chimes Israel center as the “resilience trustee,” to identify ongoing needs and build additional resilience programs for employees and service recipients. 

The program is not fully funded, so we are using donations to the Israel-Gaza War Fund through GlobalGiving to support this project.