In light of the heightened ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan, JDC has expanded its welfare services, including providing extra food and medicine, to ensure that the region’s neediest Jews receive the care that they need under these unpredictable circumstances. We’re also continuing to monitor the safety of the local Jewish community clients every day.
Since the start of the crisis in April, JDC’s services to the Jewish community have continued uninterrupted, primarily through the Hesed welfare center in the capital, Bishkek. We’ve been delivering vital meals on wheels for homebound elderly despite the civil unrest; and with the intermittent standstill of public transport, homecare workers even slept at the homes of bedridden clients whose lives would have been jeopardized without the cooking, cleaning, bathing, and other support they provide to clients.
JDC’s actually been a long-time partner to Kyrgyzstan’s estimated 1,300 Jews, funding not only critical social services but also supporting a Jewish library and Jewish renewal activities such as a family education program. And we’ll continue to be their 9-1-1 as long as they need us.
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