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Ashdod
Students of the "Shekamim" Elementary School are Fundraising for the Association of the Deaf and "Nitzan"
The students of the "Shekamim" Elementary School in Ashdod have taken the welcomed initiative in planning a special fundraising campaign for the Association of the Deaf and "Nitzan". This is the first time in Israel that children are initiating a fundraising evening of this type. The fundraising evening will take place at the school on 16.3.2010 at 7:30 p.m. The fundraising evening is the product of a plan of the student body and the school's student council, together with the school administration, the parents, the municipality of Ashdod, the Association of the Deaf, and "Nitzan". For the special evening, made possible with the funding of companies and businesses from Ashdod and with the participation of known businessman, newspapers, public personalities, and religious leaders, the children have invested a number of weeks to ensure its success, preparing artwork with the intention of selling them in an open auction at the fundraising evening. At the evening will also be live performances of children in song and dance. For the evening, government leaders, from the president of Israel and Knesset members and leading businessmen have been invited. Knesset member, Ilan Gilaon of "Meretz", promised to participate in the evening, Knesset member Avi Dichter sent an invitation to the children to come visit the Knesset.
The evening organizers stress that in addition to the goal of raising money for the associations of "Nitzan" and the Deaf, the main intention in the project is to arouse public awareness to become involved with and contribute to others in the community. The public is invited, as well, to come and participate in the fundraising evening.
Anat Biger
Article taken from "The Week in Ashdod" local newspaper on 26.2.10
Naharia
Boaz Sharabi and Eilanit will Appear at the Fundraising Evening for the Nitzan Association in Naharia
Taken from an article by Karen Ohr Greenberg in the "Tzafon" local newspaper on 5.3.10:
 "The first assessment I did before I was even school-aged. It was decided that I wasn't mature enough, so I stayed another year in kindergarten.
I was helped by a speech therapist. The second assessment I did when I was a little older, in 6th grade. This was the result my parents' decision and the teacher's recommendation. I was against the assessment and the leniencies I was given as a result. I didn't understand in the beginning why this is good for me, despite the difficulties in writing that I had, writing mistakes and teachers' complaints about my answers on tests and papers that I turned in. Nevertheless, my parents decided to act for my academic success. Here, I want to address parents who are worrying about taking their children for an assessment, and to say to them, that a child with learning disabilities isn't bad, and there's no reason to worry about taking him for an assessment. It will help him personally and raise his self-confidence, which is currently low since he's not succeeding on exams and in everything they want to succeed in. My parents supported me all the way and turned to Nitzan who received me in the most pleasant and sweet way that could be.
The author of these lines was assessed as being ADHD. Today, she is a veteran soldier of the Israeli army who served almost one year with a high school diploma and grades of 80 +. Her dream is to attend university and learn to be a teacher.
Monday evening, 15/3, a special fundraising evening for the Nitzan Association will take place at the Heichal HaTarbut in Naharia, with a performance by Boaz Sharabi and Eilanit highlighting the event. President of the Nitzan Nahria branch, Miki Goldwasser, took on herself personally to advance the fundraising evening, with the hope that the residents of Naharia and the surrounding area will open their hearts and their pockets.
The Nitzan Association is an association of parents and volunteers that was established in 1964 with the goal of detecting, assessing, and treating children, teenagers, and adults with learning disabilities or adaptive and functional difficulties. Experts estimate that some 10% of all children and adults suffer from learning disabilities. Approximately 2% of them need a special education setting. The Nitzan Naharia branch provides assessment, counseling, and training services, together with a set of treatment services including didactic and psychological assessments, speech therapy, remedial instruction, support workshops for parents, and occupational therapy, which are almost completely subsidized by the Klalit medical clinic insurance. A report that was prepared by the Smith research center in collaboration with Dr. Iris Kalka, reveals that in half of the children with learning disabilities there are also emotional problems, and with a fourth of them there are social problems. Some 47% of parents in Israel with children aged 6-18 have taken at least one of their children for an assessment. Approximately 2/3 of the assessments identified learning difficulties.
The director of the Nitzan Naharia branch, Yona Flisher says, "In contrast to the many private institutes, Nitzan is a non-profit association, that invests its revenues and the contributions it receives from the public to expand its activities in the community. In merit of the contributions we received in the past we decided to broaden our activities, to leave our building, Bet Rasel, and to personally come to the schools in cooperation work with the counselors, principals, and teachers. We recognized the need to involve parents in a broad and open setting in order to train them and to given them professional tools and awareness how to cope with the child who has learning disabilities, to help him and them, and we even increased the number of professional staff at the center. Today, we work in full cooperation with the Naharia social services office and a research study that was conducted by Haifa University encourages our inclusion in the schools.
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