In my monthly posts, I usually talk about AMIT’s high schools because they are the largest segment of our educational network. But each of our other schools, elementary, vocational, and residential are also important in providing vital services for kids in Israel.
This month, I want to focus on Beit Hayeled, AMIT’s residential facility in Jerusalem. It provides a therapeutic home to more than 50 boys and girls, ages 8 to 14. These children come from all over the country; some from religious and some from secular backgrounds. As Niva Ament, the head of therapeutic services at Beit Hayeled describes, “All have experienced trauma in one form or another. Some were neglected, some were abused and some witnessed scenes beyond a child’s or adult’s ability to properly cope. As a result, many have developed significant learning issues and some suffer from psychiatric illness stemming from trauma. When one enters the doors of this modest building, one immediately feels as if one has entered into a parallel little world with its own sense of time, language, energy, and its own sense of rules. Everything about this home is designed to offer a familial therapeutic setting to encourage children who have suffered greatly a chance to heal.”
This home and its exceptional staff of young couples, national service girls, and administrators faced their greatest challenge over the past two months. Covid-19 closed schools and put taking a simple walk out of bounds. Yet, our home needed to remain open for the children under our care. While the children were entertained with baking, beatboxing, dog training, origami, painting, a petting zoo, and myriad other activities, the staff had to decide who could go home and who needed to stay at Beit Hayeled through Passover. The majority of kids live with us due to court order. AMIT staff considered the wishes and resilience of both parents, and children, the parents’ ability to care for the children should anyone become sick, and the effect of a pandemic on the mental health of adults already dealing with anxiety and depression. Even with a number of children leaving for a few weeks, the pressure on the Beit Hayeled staff was enormous. An intricate new daily schedule was developed that required small groups of children to be rotated around the building and yard outside.
This week marked the first time all the children had a full school schedule. Therefore it is a good time to take stock and reflect on how Beit Hayeled fared during this unsettling period. As Niva notes, “although our corona schedule was undeniably demanding, it also allowed for more relaxing downtime than we are ordinarily accustomed to having. There was more informal bonding time, hanging out on the swings, heart-to-heart talks, meals in smaller groups, carefree playfulness, allowing for many magical moments. Our building never felt more like a home and we never felt more like a family… and thank God, our children and staff all stayed healthy.”
The Beit Hayeled afternoon program for non-residential students has opened. We are interviewing new children who are waiting to be placed at Beit Hayeled due to emergency conditions in their homes. The interviews are a little less stressful as the families see the children playing outside and feel the welcoming environment. Niva now interviews on the lawn, “her new makeshift office” (one star in the darkness).
Creating magical moments for at-risk kids is difficult. Turning a pandemic into many magical moments for at-risk kids is extraordinary. Thank you to Evyatar Shaki, Niva Ament, the management staff, and all our frontline heroes at Beit Hayeled.
