Fixing Window Pains for a "Dignified Old Age"

Yehuda's favorite spot is by the window. From there, the unmarried 75-year-old watches passers-by on their way to and from Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda market. Many know him, and wave. Yet he rarely invites them, or anyone, in to share some tea or a conversation. He's too ashamed.

"How can I let people see this?" he lamented, pointing to the chipped paint, crumbling plaster and rotting ceiling of his 130-year-old home. "In winter, with the leaks and the damp, it's even worse."

With only a state pension to live on, and the need to buy medicines to treat his worsening leg and heart problems, Yehuda had given up on finding money for repairs. "I asked the welfare office if they could help," he says, "but the answer was always the same."

At least it was until early in the fall, when Yehuda's social worker finally had a solution to his plight. She contacted Beseva Tova – JDC-ESHEL's initiative to help Israel's elderly poor – and shortly afterwards Yehuda received a welcome visit from four young women volunteers, who then spent three days, scraping, sanding, plastering and painting.

As his home was transformed, so was Yehuda. "It felt so good to have people around," he says today. "Now I can invite guests without feeling ashamed. I feel like a human being again."