Despite all of the turmoil surrounding the government relations with disabled citizens, those Israelis can look to the Jewish Agency for a measure of attention and relief. The Agency, according to its recent report, is allocating more than NIS 1 million of its 2002 budget for projects aimed at improving the quality of life for Israel?s disabled and other groups with special needs.
Among the projects to be supported by the Jewish Agency, through its quality of life allocations program, are several projects and associations that foster understanding and contact between disabled and healthy Israelis. Among those are two associations encouraging ties and competitions between disabled and healthy youths and athletes, the Kehilatenu organization, which helps the disabled integrate into the general community, a project to teach sign language to schoolchildren and teachers, a project run by the Beit Ross Community Center fostering tolerance towards the blind and groups with special needs, and the ?Noar LeNoar? (Youth for Youth) movement, which works to integrate children with special needs. Also receiving Jewish Agency allocations for the promotion of tolerance are Akim, which encourages joint sports and youth movement activities with teenagers who are mentally disabled and Beit Issy Shapira in Raanana, for a project to promote tolerance towards children with developmental problems.
Other projects receiving Jewish Agency funds, but not focused on tolerance alone, are the Deaf Association project offering deaf children the opportunity to celebrate a bar/bat mitzvah, a project run by ?Machon Bet David? helping the blind and deaf to increase their sense of Jewish identity, Shalva, which is running a community center for disabled children and the Sulam organization?s project assisting and encouraging disabled children.
Among the projects to be supported by the Jewish Agency, through its quality of life allocations program, are several projects and associations that foster understanding and contact between disabled and healthy Israelis. Among those are two associations encouraging ties and competitions between disabled and healthy youths and athletes, the Kehilatenu organization, which helps the disabled integrate into the general community, a project to teach sign language to schoolchildren and teachers, a project run by the Beit Ross Community Center fostering tolerance towards the blind and groups with special needs, and the ?Noar LeNoar? (Youth for Youth) movement, which works to integrate children with special needs. Also receiving Jewish Agency allocations for the promotion of tolerance are Akim, which encourages joint sports and youth movement activities with teenagers who are mentally disabled and Beit Issy Shapira in Raanana, for a project to promote tolerance towards children with developmental problems.
Other projects receiving Jewish Agency funds, but not focused on tolerance alone, are the Deaf Association project offering deaf children the opportunity to celebrate a bar/bat mitzvah, a project run by ?Machon Bet David? helping the blind and deaf to increase their sense of Jewish identity, Shalva, which is running a community center for disabled children and the Sulam organization?s project assisting and encouraging disabled children.