JDC Professional is Helping to Secure a Brighter Future for Argentina's youngest Jews

Viviana, 54, is never content with the status quo. As the Director of Baby Help, a JDC-sponsored program that provides food, medical, and other assistance to at-risk pregnant mothers and young children in Argentina, she is committed to constantly improving and custom-tailoring these services to the needs of the clients. "I am always pushing for more," she says, smiling warmly.

From a young age, Viviana had a clear vision that she wanted to make a vital contribution to the world. She earned her Social Work degree in Israel, returning to Buenos Aires in 1974. Her first paid social work position was at a public Jewish hospital. From there she became the Director of Social Work at a Jewish home for the elderly.

A visionary also in the secular realm, in 1983 Viviana was hired by the City Hall of Buenos Aires as the Director of the Department of Domestic violence – the first city-funded department to deal with this issue. She then worked as a technical advisor on the writing of national legislation concerning domestic violence.

Just as Viviana began to tire of the stress and political pressure of government work, an ad in the newspaper that caught her attention. JDC was seeking a Director – proficient in English, Hebrew, and Spanish – to help create a volunteer network. After the bombings of Argentina's Jewish community headquarters (AMIA) in 1992 and 1994, more than 1,200 individuals enlisted to volunteer in Buenos Aires. "There was a shift in mentality," explains Viviana. "People began to feel that they wanted to do something to help the community, not just play tennis and join social clubs."

This spirit of voluntarism continued to evolve until in 1996, capitalizing on this trend, JDC opted to launch a volunteer network, "Voluntarios en Red", with Viviana at the helm. Her role was to coordinate all of the volunteers and services being provided by the various Jewish organizations in Argentina. "It was a great experience for me, but not easy," she says. "There was no cooperation between agencies – they were like islands – and in fact they were territorial and concerned that another group would take their clients." But Viviana quickly proved herself a worthy, honest broker to the community's various organizations. "The fact that I had been away from the Jewish community for so many years was actually an advantage. I didn't know the internal problems, or who had issues with whom, so I was able to work with everyone without preconceptions."

Viviana set to organizing volunteer centers in different areas of the city. Within three months she had established five centers, and within six months had opened nineteen. But she soon discovered that the communities' needs were far greater than what had been anticipated. "We were expecting to develop a program for secondary needs, such as home visits to the elderly or help for people with disabilities," she explained. "What we found was that people were asking for basic needs…for food, concretely."

In fact, in the nascent stages of developing the Volunteer Network, Argentina's historically self-sufficient, sophisticated, and affluent Jewish community was already beginning to feel effects of economic decline. Viviana recalls a story that illustrated the needs developing in the community in the late 1990s:

<"There was a rabbi at a synagogue addressing his congregation on a Friday night. He told them there was a box outside the sanctuary and asked everyone to deposit a coin on their way out. Everyone was so surprised that the rabbi would ask for money on Shabbat. But he explained that he had visited a school where he saw children go home for lunch at noon and come back five minutes later. When he asked them why, they had said there was no food for them to eat at home. And the rabbi felt it was more important that children not go hungry than not to use money on Shabbat.">

The deteriorating economy began to impact Jews of all social classes. As middle and upper-middle class families could no longer afford Jewish day school tuition and high-fashion clothing to wear to social clubs and synagogue, they began to retreat. "JDC’s Volunteer Network gave many Argentine Jews a chance to come back into the community," Viviana explains, " and is part of the reason that the project was so successful." With the growing demand to help people meet their basic needs, the Volunteer Network sought additional funds in order to transform itself into a network of Social Assistance Centers that provided welfare services, including food, medicine, and housing assistance. In the year 2000, Viviana headed up a team to establish these centers in the provinces of Argentina (outside Buenos Aires), home to some of the country's most impoverished Jews.

Today JDC provides for a welfare caseload of some 32,000 Argentine Jews through a network of 74 Social Assistance Centers, 19 of which are located in the provinces. Viviana is still the coordinator for three of the locales: Rosario, Cordoba and Tucuman.

By the end of 2001, Argentina's economy had officially crashed. "I had the sensation that my country was starting to disappear," reflects Viviana. "It was like a freefall." She explains that in the Jewish community, people began to lose not only their own homes, savings, and jobs, but their entire support network. "Three generations of family would end up living in a grandmother's house on her pension alone. It was very difficult."

Throughout her own hardship, Viviana remained dedicated to her work. "Just when it seemed that everything was breaking down, JDC was a light. Many of us felt that." So when, in early 2003, JDC developed the Baby Help program, Viviana was the obvious choice for Director. Viviana's colleagues describe this project as "her baby." The program provides at-risk pregnant women and parents of children ages 0 to 3 years items such as milk, formula, vitamins, clothing, and hygienic supplies; costly vaccinations not administered by the public health system; and equipment such as strollers, cribs, and height chairs. It also makes available otherwise unaffordable Jewish ceremonies of Brit Mila and Simchat Bat.

Viviana is most proud that the Baby Help Center is a place for young, at-risk families to experience these lifecycle events, including the monthly celebrations of children's birthdays. "These are kids whose parents do not have the money or opportunity to make a party for them," she explains. "So we make them feel special." The Center also hosts holiday festivities – including the most recent Rosh Hashana celebration. "Parents come to Baby Help with their children on the holiday and connect with each other and escape their problems for a while, which is invaluable," says Viviana.

Baby Help currently reaches 950 children and at-risk pregnant mothers. Among other programmatic developments, Viviana hopes to increase the scope of services it provides – she has already added eye care to the repertoire – and raise the age limit of the beneficiaries to four years old.

While running Baby Help and coordinating Social Assistance Centers, Viviana also directs the "Ser Solidario" volunteer training program through the City Hall in Buenos Aires and trains volunteers for the Ronald McDonald House charity. An inspiration to her co-workers and clients, Viviana is nothing if not dedicated. "JDC gives me the possibility of working in what I love, which is a privilege." __________________________________________

At the peak of the crisis, JDC carried a welfare caseload of 37,000. JDC currently provides food, medicines, and housing assistance to some 32,000 Argentine Jews and the caseload is projected to fall to 29,000 by the end of 2004. It is estimated that 10,000 elderly, 5,000 vulnerable children, and 2,500 special needs clients will continue to require assistance indefinitely. This figure is more than three times the community's poor prior to the crisis (4,000).