Children's Homes & Crisis Centres
Emunah Children’s Homes and Villages seek to provide a warm, loving and supportive environment to at-risk children who have been removed from their homes by social services. So many of our children have suffered suffered abuse, abuse, or abandonment and as a result are coping with severe trauma, anxiety and other emotional and developmental issues. Our home's implement innovative therapies and treatments that are designed to build up the self-confidence and the self esteem of our children, in order to help break the cycle of dysfunction so many are stuck in.
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Emunah has 5 children’s homes across the country:
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Crisis Centres
Crisis Centers
Emunah's Crisis Centres are designed to provide emergency care for children that need to be removed from their homes or other situations immediately.
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The primary goal of the crisis centres is to ensure the child’s personal safety and provide basic necessities and support in order to allow for immediate safe distance from the trauma and distress they have experienced.
Emunah Bet Saba Elazraki in Netanya is home to our emergency placement for babies and infants. They are ready and on-call to receive abandoned or neglected young children at any time during the day or night. The placement provides them with a warm, loving and safe environment, until a more permanent arrangement can be found - often foster care or permanent residential placement in one of our homes.
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The doors to the Neve Michael Emergency Crisis Center opened in August 2000. Children from all over the country who need to be immediately removed from their home and horrible situation are referred to us through the Welfare Department and arrive at our Emergency Crisis Center, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is here that children receive professional and diagnostic therapy and testing so the staff can begin the long process of recovery with the children. Most children, who arrive at our Emergency Crisis Center, cannot return home. They are constantly here, through holidays and summer vacation. This is their home.
The Teenage Girls Crisis Center treats girls who who have suffered mental/physical abuse or who are in emotional distress due to various causes. Only the most severe cases are referred to the center by the Welfare Department. The professional staff at Neve Michael evaluates each teenager and plans an individual treatment program for her.
The main objective is to build self-sufficiency in the teenagers, so that they will be able to cope with life’s challenges as mentally healthy adults thereby breaking the cycle of dysfunction and giving these girls a hopeful outlook for their lives.
Nurit & Maya's Story
When Maayan* and her sister Nurit* first came to Neve Michael's Emergency Crisis Shelter for abused and abandoned children, they were only 4 and 6 years old. The 24/7 Emergency Children’s Shelter is the only one of its kind in Israel. Police and social workers are able to bring infants and children to receive immediate care and shelter while the Ministry of Welfare and Social Services works on a long-term plan for their care.
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Maayan and Nurit’s parents were divorced and at the time, they were living with their mother, who was a serious drug abuser.
​Their father suffered from a severe mental illness and could not care for his children either. The sisters stayed in the Emergency Shelter until they were able to be moved into the Home on a permanent basis.
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Initially, their mother was granted limited visitation, and the girls would occasionally go to visit her at her home. During one such visit, their mother was so high on drugs and out of control that threw a portable washing machine at Maayan. When the mother missed her “target,” she became even more manic and set the apartment on fire. Luckily, the sisters escaped physically unharmed. After this horrifying incident, a judge ruled that the mother could no longer have any access or visitation rights with the girls. The daughters have been totally cut off from their mother and hardly have any type of contact with their dysfunctional father.
This has been a horrific trauma for the sisters. The pain and grief each girl suffers is beyond belief. They are being cared for by the exceptional and loving staff at the Emunah Neve Michael Home. In addition to receiving extensive trauma counselling, each girl participates in the arts and music therapy programs and enjoys numerous sports activities and gardening. Every day, the girls are getting a little stronger and happier. They are starting to look toward having a brighter, more stable future for themselves.
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Nurit and Maayan’s story is only one illustration of the complex lives and traumas suffered by hundreds of children that are in Emunah’s care.
(*names have been changed to protect the children’s privacy)