Arts And Entertainment Fair - ALEH

The ALEH Arts and Entertainment Fair

Yesterday wasn't a Jewish festival in Israel (outside Israel it was - don't ask) but the children still had the day off school. As a wonderful end to the festivities we went to the ALEH Arts and Entertainment Fair at The First Station.

I've written about ALEH before - it's Israel's largest network of care facilities for over 750 people with multiple and complex disabilities. They have residential homes, respite stays, medical and rehabilitative care, educational frameworks, and assistive therapies. It's an amazing organization and I'm always happy to support the fundraisers and events.

Tuesday is my college day so I had to work this morning but after lunch DD, her BFF, and I walked down to the first station in time for the show. I enjoyed it although DD and her friend patiently explained to me that if it's a show "for all the family" that means it's for little children. I watched the show while they went shopping.

The tie-dying was held in a bar but unfortunately the bar was closed. :(

The First Station is our mini Covent Garden without the street artists. There were stalls lining the main drag and selling all sorts of artisan items: knitted, quilted, ceramic, jewellery, hats, beautifully painted hand held fans, bags and purses, religious items, and toys. The girls inspected everything and came back with some little jelly beads that grow when you put them in water, and an egg with 'nauty putty' (sic) inside. They spent £1 each and we were all satisfied.

We didn't need the Covent Garden street artists as there were about 20 arts and crafts tables for kids to join, including face painting, glass painting, hair braiding, wooden ornaments to make and decorate, slime making, you name it, if it involved painting it was probably there.

Then we sat and had ice-cream because it's rude not to when you're at The First Station. DD had vanilla and marshmellow, BFF chose the more sophisticated pistachio and cheese cake, and I had frozen yogurt with pineapple and lychee and mascarpone with berries. Delicious!

Yeah, we loved it!

The highlight of our day was a tie-dye workshop. Each of the girls got a white tee-shirt which they twisted and bound with rubber bands. Then they painted them and finally the shirts were handi-wrapped and put into bags for us to bring home and finish. Tomorrow we have to rinse them out, wash them them in the washing machine and hang them out to dry. I'll post the results on Thursday.

We walked home in the sweltering heat, even though it was after 6 pm which is unusual for Jerusalem. Reality hit as we walked through the door - supper, showers, bags ready for tomorrow and early to bed (for DD, obviously not for me). But it felt good to have ended the holidays with a full, fun and active day out.

ALEH Adults Update.

This is an update on my post: ALEH All People No Limits. Many friends and readers wanted to know what the children of ALEH do when they become adults. The website and videos all talk about the children and there is no mention of what happens later. So I contacted ALEH and received this welcome and heartwarming reply from Elie Klein, on behalf of ALEH's Communications Department.(I bolded the important bit.)

Rachel,

Our firm serves as an extension of ALEH's communications department.  Dov Hirth from ALEH saw your inquiry and requested that I respond.

I want to begin by letting you know how much we all love and appreciate your blog post.  We are so happy to hear that you were so touched by the presentations at the ALEH Jerusalem Ladies Committee gala, and we are so grateful that you chose to share that experience with your readers.  ALEH really is a special place, and we would be happy to take you on a tour.

Regarding your questions,  ALEH provides a continuum of loving care for individuals with disabilities, a framework for life – from infancy and childhood through adulthood.  Some of the children you saw in the video are not actually children – they are young men and women in their teens, 20s and even 30s.  While some ALEH residents move from our Jerusalem residence to our rehabilitative village in the Negev once they have reached adulthood (some prefer the predominantly adult community there), most of our residents remain in the ALEH centers where they are raised.  After all, it's HOME! ;-)

Again, it's one thing to talk about ALEH but experiencing it is something else entirely.  We would love to host you at any one of our four residential facilities.  Just say when.

All the best & Shana Tova,

Elie

A good answer, right? 

If you would like to donate to ALEH please visit the ALEH website.

ALEH: All People No Limits

Before most of the guests arrived, Rubbish Photographer strikes again

This post wasn't supposed to be about ALEH. It was supposed to be about how my lovely friend Sally-Ann invited me to a charity dinner organised by the committee she's on.

Before I got there I couldn't even remember which charity it was in aid of.

This post was supposed to be about arranging for DD to stay overnight with a friend, getting all dressed up for a mid-week dinner at the King David Hotel (very pish-posh), meeting lots of people I know there (I think I've explained about the Anglo community in Jerusalem before - we're mostly all friends or friends of friends), a fabulous buffet supper (ok, turns out it wasn't a dinner), amazing entertainment by Nimrod Harel (Master Mentalist - OMG he was incredible!) and basically a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

Then I came face to face with ALEH. I knew about ALEH of course, like you know about loads of prominent charities - RNLI, RSPCC, RSPCA, Oxfam, etc.... ALEH.

Thirty-five years ago a group of families in the centre of the country (that means near Tel Aviv) who each had a severely disabled child, clubbed together to rent an apartment, hired a special education teacher, and amassed a group of volunteers to help give their children the quality of life they deserved, but that is so hard to provide and sustain at home on your own.

This was the beginning of ALEH. Today ALEH has four campuses around the country providing medical care, rehabilitation facilities, education, and above all, a warm and safe home in which each child can reach his or her full potential. Today over 700 children are under the loving care of ALEH.

On Monday night we heard from Shirat Malach whose 18 year old son, Tuvia, has lived at ALEH for the past 15 years, since he was four years old. One poignant memory she shared was about Tuvia's eighteenth birthday. The family discussed how they should celebrate but in the end didn't run with any of the ideas. Shirat said that on the morning of Tuvia's birthday she couldn't get out of bed. She couldn't bring herself to paint on a smile and pretend that everything was wonderful. The family stayed home and did nothing. However, in the evening they were sent photos of Tuvia enjoying a lively birthday party at ALEH, surrounded by his  friends and carers. "They did what we could not do at that moment," Shirat told us. There were few dry eyes in the room.

We saw this video about ALEH:




I spent much of the evening thinking of my blogging friend Candi in Dublin, and wishing that her family and all families who need such a wonderful organization, could have an ALEH.

Thank you Sally-Ann and Tony for inviting me. It was a memorable evening and so important for the continuation of a vital service, saving children and their families from desperate situations.

If you would like to donate to ALEH please visit the ALEH website.

Click on the photos below to enlarge them and read about some of the ALEH family in Israel.