Dear Friend,
As we prepare for the High Holidays of 5776, we are deeply aware of the growing refugee crisis occurring around the world, and at our own helplessness in addressing this calamity. We can, however, take a small but significant step in beginning to address the refugee tragedy in our own backyard, and we ask you to partner with us in doing so.
The Hartman Institute has decided to establish a Day Care and Learning Center in Tel Aviv for children of African refugees aged 3-6. The Center will be launched in collaboration with the Elifelet organization, our hosts last summer, which cares for more than 600 children and infants. Three- to six-year-olds are the age group that Elifelet professionals have identified as being at the greatest risk. These children are released from their day care environments at 1:30 every afternoon and have nowhere to go and no one to watch over or care for them, until their parents return home from work in the evening.
Elifelet personnel will oversee the professional staff and educational programming at the Hartman-sponsored Center. The Hartman Institute community will provide the financial resources and the backbone of the Center’s volunteer infrastructure, which will include our high school and gap-year students, administrative staff, teaching and research faculty, and the parents of our students. The center will function from 1:30–6:30 pm daily, and will provide children with a safe, caring, and nurturing environment that will offer nutritious meals, counseling, basic learning skills classes, and a game center.
We intend to open the Center after the holidays. The cost of launching and running the Center in the coming year is roughly $200,000, broken down in the following manner:
Professional Staff
$65,000
Rent and Utilities
$40,000
Food
$20,000
Transportation
$30,000
Furnishings (Startup Cost)
$20,000
Special Programming
$25,000
Total
$200,000
Please join us to fulfill this important mitzvah by giving a tax-deductible donation today.
We deeply appreciate your help and extend our best wishes for a Shana Tova to you, your family and friends, and all of those in need.
Sincerely yours,
Donniel Hartman Yehuda Kurtzer Yossi Klein Halevi
For additional information or questions, please contact: Laura Gilinski, Chief Development and Public Relations Officer.
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