The high price of school backpacks and other supplies leave many parents unable to buy their children what they need for the school year. In addition, the trend to buy brand-name items has become stronger, placing even more pressure on the same families.
Founded and run by hasidim from several different sects, the Even Yisrael foundation distributed 350 high-quality backpacks packed with all the necessary supplies to secular needy families in the southern cities of Kiryat Malakhi and Netivot.
As a result, hundreds of needy children will start the school year on Friday with an attractive backpack and all the necessary school supplies.
Kiryat Malakhi's WIZO worked together with Even Yisrael to buy and distribute the supplies, which included notebooks, writing supplies, pencil cases, backpacks, and more.
G., whose child received one of the backpacks, said, "It's not normal. Every year, we have to deal with this again. We have four children, and buying each of them the necessary supplies for the new school year is an expense we simply cannot afford. It's thousands of shekels, and it always comes at the end of August, after we emptied our pockets to pay for summer camps and find ways to entertain our children."
"Even worse, most of our children's friends receive a new brand-name backpack every year, and we don't want our children to be embarrassed. There have been years when we stretched ourselves too thin and ended up even more in debt, and there were years in which we simply could not manage to do it. It breaks our heart.
"These donations are like a gift from Heaven. Thanks to [Even Yisrael], I can look my children in the eye this year. It's saved us, literally. It's also saved our honor, but more importantly, it saved our children's honor."
Even Yisrael Director Rabbi Yehuda Yoskowitz said, "The support we give these children helps them start each school year in the best way possible. They feel like they are equals, and don't feel any lack, heartache, or bitterness. The school bags which were distributed this year in Kiryat Malakhi and Netivot are excellent quality, beautiful, and new. They include all of the necessary supplies students need during the school year."
"At Even Yisrael, it's important to us to give every Israeli in Israel - not just haredim - what they need. Israel's unity, and bringing society's sectors closer together, are essential values for us."