- Israel

Druze Community Coordinator is Thankful for the JDC Children and Adult Respites During the War

Nada is the community center social activity coordinator in the Druze village of Mrar. A widow whose husband was killed in action in Lebanon in 1983, Nada uses her reserves of strength to benefit the community which has nurtured her all her life.

A perseverant and kind woman, Nada describes Mrar as a good place to raise children. "Even toddlers play outside safely," she said. But during this past summer's war, the streets became deserted. When sirens went off, children cried and the elderly froze in fear. Dozens of people in Mrar were injured by missiles and two women were killed. "They were my friends," Nada shares. "It was heartbreaking to see the grief on their children's faces."

With each missile attack, people phoned to make sure their loved ones were alright. "One day a missile fell only 20 meters from my son's work. I didn't stop shaking until I heard his voice," said Nada. She and her community saw and felt firsthand that rockets and missiles did not discriminate between Jew and Muslim, Israeli, Ethiopian Israeli or immigrant from the Caucasus Mountain Region.

To help the community of Mrar cope through the crisis, children's activities were organized in bomb shelters, a trauma room was opened in the community center and Nada and volunteers carried out home visits. "But we also all needed a break," she admits. This much-needed reprieve came through JDC-supported day camps: one-day getaways that were culturally senstive to the community's preference to keep families together and thus not evacuate children for extended periods.

"The day camps were such an important program: You could see the relief on everyone's face when the bus started moving, and by the time we got to our destination the children were playing and the adults chatting just like in normal times," Nada said. "The day camp program made all the difference in the way our community coped with the war."

As one of the vulnerable populations assisted by the programs of JDC-Israel, Israeli Arabs in communities such as Mrar benefited from numerous JDC-spnsored programs throughout the conflict zones in the north and in Gaza and continue to benefit from them today. Elderly Israelis in need, including Arabs and Jews, were taken on five-day respite trips out of the conflict zone and received extended emergency care through Day Centers in their communities. Information kits were distributed to Israelis with disabilities in multiple languages, including Arabic and Hebrew, as were activity kits for children complete with Arabic-language games and crafts. And today, as JDC's "Toward a New Galilee" initiative seeks to upgrade and expand programs that proved critical during the war, the weakest citizens from all segments of Israeli society stand to benefit.

December 2006