Please help me raise funds for Yemin Orde’s therapeutic arts programs.
For my bat mitzvah tzedekah (charity) project, I am raising money for Yemin Orde Youth Village in Israel to help support its extracurricular therapeutic arts programs, such as ceramics, dance, music, photography and more.
Yemin Orde Youth Village, located south of Haifa, is home, school and safe haven to 430 at-risk and immigrant youth. Yemin Orde’s youth, who are between the ages of 14 and 19, are first generation Israelis, or their parents are first generation Israelis, from from Ethiopia, the Former Soviet Union, France, and Brazil. The Village’s youth arrive at Yemin Orde from the lowest end of Israel’s socio-economic scale.
Yemin Orde’s dedicated staff, along with the Village’s deeply sensitive approach to living and learning, helps transform the lives of Israel’s at-risk youth. With its successful Village Way educational methodology, fragile teens overcome past trauma, develop self-esteem, confidence, leadership skills and embrace hope so that they can lead meaningful and productive lives as Israeli citizens.
I specifically chose to support Yemin Orde Youth Village because of its long history of providing a loving home for children at risk, beginning with those who were orphaned by the Holocaust. My Nana was orphaned in Poland during WWII and was lucky to have found adoptive Christian parents who took care of her. The youth at Yemin Orde are also lucky to find a home and a future – and be with other children. I also love the fact that Yemin Orde is a model for other residential communities outside of Israel that also help improve the lives of orphans and at-risk youth, such as Agahozo Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda.
I hope that by focusing my fundraising efforts on Yemin Orde’s art and dance therapy programs, in particular, I can help support creative healing outlets for at-risk youth. Helping the Village’s youth have self-confidence and self-esteem will result in success in school and later in life.
Art and dance (hip-hop) are a two of my favorite hobbies. I like to be creative and in art, there are no mistakes! You can think out of the box and there are no limits. In dance, I feel free and when I move to the music, I can be myself. I would enjoy knowing that through art and dance therapy, the youth at Yemin Orde would be better able to respond to difficulty and treat others kindly.
Please consider joining my effort and making a donation to ImpactIsrael. Click here to donate. Also, in the section “Earmark Your Gift” on the donate form, please highlight “Genna Edelstein’s Bat Mitzvah” name so that your gift is designated toward my bat mitzvah project.
With love and thanks,
Genna Edelstein