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.

The Essence Of Childhood

I was tagged by Anna at Adventures of a Middle-Aged Matron, to find one photo that sums up the essence of childhood. We hope to highlight the tragedy in West Africa where children have nothing like such a childhood. More information at the end of the post about how we can help.

I looked long and hard for the photo to sum up the essence of childhood. It could have been the swing - I spent hours as a child just swinging and daydreaming. Playing under the dining-room table with cousins at Grandma's; sleeping with a favourite teddy; in the pool with Mummy and blowing out the candles on a birthday cake were also contenders. In the end I chose this one:

Playing in the park is what we do after school. The fact that we have school and then have well equipped parks to play in. The fact that we meet other mothers and children to play with because what else is there to do between school and bath/supper time? The fact that we have baths with running water and we don't have to dig wells and bring home questionably clean water in cans. The fact that we have plenty of food for supper.

None of the above is a sign of privilege. It's not membership to a country club or piano lessons. Being able to play in the park after school is a basic right (and rite) accessible to all children in the Western World. But not to the children of West Africa.

This is what Anna wrote about the current campaign:

This is part of a blog-hop organised by Patch of Puddles to highlight the plight of West African children who have been deprived by drought and poverty of such a childhood. The charity Worldvision has until 30th August to raise funds that will be matched £1 for £1 by the British government. Donations will provide food, sanitation, health services and long-term development programmes for destitute families. I tag Midlifesinglemum and Older Mum to choose a photo that they think sums up childhood to help spread the word.

I tag Gemma from HelloItsGemma and Vix from Vegemitevix to choose one photo depicting the essence of childhood and help spread the word.