Kesher, the Home for Special Families

Kesher: The Home for Special Families is Israel’s leading organization dedicated to the families of children with special needs. The past three months have seen many exciting new developments. In November, Kesher held its Annual Fundraising Event, attracting over 1,000 participants who heard from children and adults with special needs and enjoyed a concert from noted Israeli singer Shalom Hanoch. In December, Kesher’s advocacy work (pictured below) bore fruit when Israel’s Ministry of Health agreed to fund augmentative and alternative communications in the national health basket thereby improving the lives of children with Rhett Syndrome, ALS and other speech-related disabilities. In January 2015, Kesher kicked off a trailblazing new program for families of children with special needs from Israel’s Arab communities. The new program, conducted in partnership with Baqa El-Gharbia’s Al-Qasemi College trains parents of children with special needs and professionals working in the field to run leadership courses for parents in Israel’s Arab communities (the course’s first meeting is pictured below). These parent-leaders will then advocate for change in their communities, improving the lives and status of children with special needs and their families. January also featured an event for members of Kesher’s various spiritual care groups – an important tool which helps families with special needs deal with and learn from their special situation.

Kesher thanks EMC for its support and looks forward to hearing from you to discuss these and other Kesher programs in more detail.

A link to a short film on the evening is enclosed below:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/iwwjie6id2pjb72/Kesher-03.mp4?dl=0