The in-house bakery was established as part of the NEVE HANNA children’s therapeutic program, aiming to acquaint the children with the importance of self livelihood and providing them with skills that are valuable for future employment, of which they have not learnt from the parents. The bakery operates five days a week. Professional staff is in charge of certain production fields, while in the afternoons 35 teenagers, carefully chosen by the therapeutic staff of the children’s home, work in rotating shifts three to ten hours weekly in various functions: planning types of pastries, preparing of dough, baking, packaging, cleaning and organization, marketing, and supervising expenses and incomes. In addition, they participate at professional workshops and excursions in the areas of management, nutrition and baking.
The teenagers earn pocket-money based on the formula age-minus-one-Shekel given at the end of the month, teaching wise planning and usage of their earned money. The teenagers learn many different skills in the bakery, timeliness, fulfilling responsibilities and obligations, teamwork etc., while furthering their self-esteem and self-confidence, increasing their sense of self worth, capabilities and abilities. All in all, the bakery successfully markets its products (earning a balance in plus) in the South and in the center of Israel selling to high-tech companies, factories and supermarkets as well as kibbutzim. But there is yet another special aspect: The bakery is a source of pride for all the children of the children’s home, for, as they like to point out: NEVE HANNA is that children’s home with the bakery selling cookies to EL AL.
NEVE HANNA was founded 1974 in the development town of Kiryat Gat at the edge of the Negev desert. Hanni Ullman, sal., founded NEVE HANNA in line with her vision of another kind of children’s home, one that could offer a more family-like structure and intensive psychological care for severely traumatized children. Founded with German restitution money from Hanna Kaphan, sal., NEVE HANNA grew from two small houses into a beautiful, colorful and highly maintained institution including: four houses with living quarters, rooms for the three daycare centers, an administration building, a central kitchen with supply rooms, a synagogue, cultural and recreational facilities, a library, a social hall, a sports field, playground and petting zoo (open to the community), a house for volunteers and a bakery. In Rosh Pina, NEVE HANNA owns – thanks to a legacy of a child Hanni Ullmann saved from NS-Germany – a summerhouse, where children who cannot visit home stay over weekends and holidays. All foster family groups visit there for recreational purposes, too.
Today about 70 children (age 6 to 18) reside at NEVE HANNA, unable to live with their families due to severe problems. The children live in residential foster family units of 10 to 14 children each, each with its own daily routine. Teenagers live in a separate unit allowing for more independence. The atmosphere is family-like, caring and supportive. In addition, about 50 children attend daycare centers in order to help them and their families work out certain problems.
For 35 years, NEVE HANNA has specialized in therapeutic treatment to help the children of the children’s home and its daycare centers to overcome the traumas of their past, including poverty and starvation, physical and mental violence and sexual abuse. NEVE HANNA offers e.g. animal-assisted and horseback riding therapy, play and bibliographical therapy, occupational, art, dance and music therapies and much more. Furthermore, NEVE HANNA offers supplementary tutoring and enrichment programs, specially tailored for children with immigration background.
Other Programs:
• Petting Zoo
• Physical Education and Sports
• Leisure activities: Handicraft, Photography, Wood and Clay Work, Cooking Classes, Drama Class, Music Clubs
• Religious education and Bar/Bat Mitzvah Project
• Tzedaka Project of the teenagers
• Summer Camp Activities
• Joint Jewish-Bedouin Youth Meetings
• Joint Jewish-Bedouin Daycare Center “Path to Peace”
• Jewish-Arab Theater Project
• Home for Former Children performing their IDF/ National Service duties
• Educational Fund: Assisting former Children in their Vocational Training and Higher Education
Our goal is to furnish all children residing in NEVE HANNA with a warm home in every sense of the word. They must be both helped to overcome past experiences, and educated to become responsible, independent, and productive adults in the future. They are brought up in the light of ideas such as mutual respect and tolerance. The fact that these children are not orphans must be taken into consideration, so the children are given the opportunity to maintain contact to their parents. The social workers of the children’s home are in close contact with the children’s teachers as well as with parents and relatives, if posible. Special attention is given to the way of dress, cleanliness, and the relationship to material things. NEVE HANNA also tries to instill Jewish religious values in the children. They are educated in the spirit and norms of the Conservative (Masorti) stream, which plays an important part in the daily routine at NEVE HANNA and of which the children’s home is affiliated.
The bakery plays an important role regarding the educational aims of NEVE HANNA as well as a vital aspect of the extensive therapeutic program. Since the profits of the bakery still do not cover its therapeutic work with the children nor pay for the teenagers’ salaries, workshops and excursions, we still need support with this project, as we hope in the future to expend upon these aspects.
Regarding our objectives, we want the teenagers to learn more about work ethics and all related aspects. We require them to apply with a CV and recommendations, and transferring, under careful supervision, responsibilities to teenagers working in the bakery, we try to further their motivation, satisfaction level, and desire also to partake in other activities at the children’s home. Due to the challenge, they learn more about their abilities and boundaries.
Regarding the long-term goals, this is a vital aspect of preparation for adult life, as work ethics were not taught in their parents home. They have to learn what it means to work for a living, as their parents have not set an example in this field, and the children’s home, while providing for everything, cannot care for them after the age of 18. In addition, they have not had a support net while they were young children, and this situation does not change when they reach legality. We want to prepare our teenagers to be self-sufficient members of society. Lastly, due to education in the bakery, consumer habits change. The program enhances the ability to save money and plan a personal budget.
Name of Organization:Childrens Home at Neve Hanna
Number of Paid Staff:28 f/t, 23 p/t
Number of Volunteers:23
Total Organizational Expenses:$2,266,000
% of Organizational Overhead Expenses:40%
NEVE HANNA is, in its region, the only children’s home offering extensive therapeutic help to children and teenagers from dysfunctional families after experiencing severe traumata. There is no children’s home in the country with an initiative such as the in-house bakery of NEVE HANNA, which as been awarded several prizes as an outstanding business initiative with a charitable approach. The in-house bakery was established with a two-fold aim: as an educational project, as well as a self-support project.
Most children’s homes care extensively for their children, but usually attentive to present problems, leaving an outlook into the future aside. With the bakery program, we try to provide the teenagers with vital skills for a productive adult life and give them important ideas for business initiatives for the future.
The children’s home NEVE HANNA has several success stories, among them a now young adult, who was at the time good at drawing, a skill we tried to further. After IDF service he wanted to study graphic design, and decided to do so at the best school in California. He was accepted, worked along with his studies and was supported by friends of the children’s home. Today, he is a successful businessman, who, among other things, worked for the Walt Disney Company.
The impact of our bakery project is perhaps even better illustrated by a initiative of one boy, then 16 years old. After he was involved in the bakery project for almost two years, he came up with the following idea: If he invests his earned pocket money, he can earn more money and fulfill some dreams. He bought a cotton candy machine and went to the Kiryat Gat shopping mall and special events to sell his cotton candy. From the money he earned, he bought his own computer. Now, after finishing his army service, he is trying to establish a business together with friends and works out careful a business plan, since he learnt that planning in the financial field is crucial.
Career Assistance
Education
Hunger & Nutrition
Israel
Poverty
We accept volunteers over the age of 18 for periods of 6 to 12 months. Besides that, children and teenagers in the USA, work on Tzedaka projects on behalf of the welfare of our children. We have had girls making and selling bracelets. The profit was donated to NEVE HANNA, in addition to bracelets presented as presents to our children. Other children in the States donated, for example, from their own books and asked friends for donations, so we could establish a library with English books. Other children gave talks about NEVE HANNA, its history and its aims in their congregations, raising money for different projects: support for our Bar/Bat Mitzwah group, sports equipment. knitting clubs etc. Teenagers in Europe have organized a long-distance run, asking adults to donate/take auspice for each 100 meters and donate the money to NEVE HANNA. In addition, time and time again children identified with our bakery project. They bake and sell cookies, donating the money to NEVE HANNA.
Name:Antje C. Naujoks
Title:Public Relations
Address:P.O.Box 222, Shikun Glickson, Kiryat Gat, Israel
Telephone:972-2-5635747
Email:antje.naujoks@nevehanna.org
Website:n/a