"Ofarim" - School for Autistic Children

Dear friends of Ofarim school,

Towards the end of the school year we are happy to share with you with some of the experiences in the last quarter after this very challenging COVID-19 year. We are closing the year with a success feeling that we were able to overcome the Corono challenges and keep our children and staff in good health. We worked around the clock to support the families in need both from health and financial perspectives.

During the recent Israeli-Palestine outbreak, we kept our concepts of community, unity, and love for all religions and diverse population children in our school. We kept our normal routins and focused on the academic agenda. We continued with common holiday celebrations like Passover, Id-El-Fiter, and Shavuot. Performed the traditional ceramonies and shared traditional food. In the main school area, we prepared decorated holiday activities and used singing to engage the children into the holidays atmosphere.

As in our normal routine we used the outdoors with volunteers to get the children active and curios. We celebrated the end of the year with the entire staff members and all classrooms together.

We are now preparing for the schools summer camps in the months of July and August.

Thank you for your continous kind support.

NAchum Bloch,

School principal

Links:

• Ofarim Global Giving Page

Hi dear friends,
During this period we celebrated Tu B'Shvat with a variety of activities. Planting vegetables and planting seedlings in the gardens of our school. We learned how the flower blooms on its different parts (root, stem and leaves), and we learned about the different types of plants and flowers.

We also learned about citrus fruits in class, we researched them in a tangible way according to color, size and taste. We made orange juice, tasted citrus fruits and learned the concepts of sour and sweet. We addressed other different topics such as: outer and inner fruit parts (peel, slice, sachets Juice and seeds), types of trees, trees with fruit (almond tree, palm tree, orange tree and grapefruit tree) and trees without fruit (pine tree, cypress tree and more ..)
We expanded our learning through games, saw various videos related to the subject, played educational games on the iPad, typed the words relevant to the lessons, and worksheets.

In February, we celebrated Purim at school for several days, each day we covered a different topic.
The variety of activities that were: a make-up stand where we face colored any student who wanted.  A pajama day together with the preparation of chocolate. A circus show by a teacher at the school. A movie and popcorn and creative activities by volunteers who came to run and make us happy. Activity breaks in the school yard. Parcel delivery that this time was different from any year that took place on the school grounds due to the Covid-19 challenge

Covid-19  we had the restriction to keep days while we tried to maintain a learning routine and still take care of the kids and help many families who needed it.

Thank you again for your continuing support.

Nachum Bloch,

School principal

Links:

• Global Giving Donation page for Ofarim

Dear friends,

We typically report our activities with the children. We chose this time to share with you the changes we were able to make to our facility.

At the begining of the school year in September, our school has expanded into a new adjacent building. This building was of a school that stopped operating. The facility was old an not well maintained, and with the help of good people like you that donated, we were able to make the building into a great school facility. Please check the pictures to see how far we've come.

The work with kid of special needs comes from love and dedication. At times it can be challenging and demanding. We believe that having the new facility will help a lot in overcoming some of the daily challenges that the teaching team faces.

Liat Simchi, a decorator has volenteered to help with the new facility design. We re-built the school entrance, the teachers room, the corridors and even built a new outside shade.

We like to thank all the great people that gave us our time and energy and volunteed to help us with the change we made to our facility,

We which you all a happy new year and health.

Sincerly,

Nachum Bloch

School principle 

Links:

• Global Giving Donation page for Ofarim

Dear friends,

Due to Covid-19 we have been through closure period where our student autistic children needed to stay home with their parents.

In this time period we were in daily contact with the children and parents and provides with educational solutions through video conferencing and emotional support.

Slowly after, the education system resumed in the form of meetings in open spaces specially prepared to meet the required safety rules.

The childeren were in need for emotional support mainly due to the changes they observed due to the Corona outbreak.  We prepared special activities and experiences such as woring with animals, and outdoor days at the beach.

In additiona, we celebrated graduation for 6th grade pupils that leave our school and Bar-Mitzva for the kids that turn 13 years old. All of that was accomplished by volunteers that helped orginizing the ceremonies despite the Covid situation.

In the summer camp many volunteers arrived and helped with outdoor water activities, art and crafts, and birthdays celebrations.

Our school has been re-modled during the summer and 5 new classrooms has been prepared to accomodate first graders in the school. We were able to expend the school to a new building that has been prepared to fit our special needs. Many volunteers throughout the country came to help painting, fixing, and decorating the new building. We recieved donations for buying furniture, education materials, and games.

Our hope is to have iPad for each of our students .

We hope to overcome the Corona outbreak and resume our normal healthy routine soon. We like to thank each and every one of you for your support.

 

Regards,

Nachum 

Links:

• Ofarim Global Giving Page

Dear Friends,

These days when the world is impacted by the Corona virus , we are continuing to keep in touch with the children and their families on a daily basis, and we are sending them instructional and educational videos.

Not long ago, before the virus hit us, we went for outingswith volunteers around Haifa, Carmelit, Tel Shakemona, Hecht Park and other places.The volunteers , including soldiers, came to us from schools in Haifa and all over the country. We taught them about autism and the structure of our school, so they could get involved with our students.. .

Together we celebrated Tu Bishvat  , Purim and the end of winter and the beginning of spring.  We hope that we will all come back to see and teach your children soon  but until then we will send you pictures of the volunteer activities from February and March.

 In the meantime, with the donations we receive, we buy games for the children and deliver them to their homes.    We also take broken iPads and repair and return them to families.  (The cost to fix an iPad is $ 50 to $ 200.)).

We are all hoping for the health and well being of our students and are very much looking forward to seeing them at school again soon..

Thank you for your support and we will stay in touch.

Nahum,

School principal