Emergency Support for Israel
With 15 years of working with Ukrainian and Russian-speaking immigrants in Israel, Project Kesher is well positioned to understand and meet the humanitarian needs of women and girls during war.
Project Kesher Israel staff and consultants are working around the clock to keep women in our network safe. PKI has made a quick shift to supportive programming with six online programs a day to help people understand what is going on, and to help women keep themselves and their families safe and calm.
We have set up an Emergency Fund for Israel to support the PKI network, including new Ukrainian and Russian immigrants and refugees. The funds are going toward:
Food Parcels for Women, Children and the Elderly: PK is delivering food parcels to women and families in Ashkelon, Ashdod, Petach Tikva, Ramat Gan, Haifa, Jerusalem, Modiin, and Dimona. Many of these households do not qualify for government assistance because they are temporary transplants from Ukraine and may have children in Israeli hospitals.
Warm Clothes: PKI has started purchasing warm clothes for refugees and immigrants.
First Aid Kits: In the rush to get to bomb shelters, there are many simple injuries that can be addressed with first aid kits which recent immigrants/refugees do not own. Skinned knees, cuts from broken glass, etc. are routinely treated at home.
Mental Health Support for Women and Children in Russian: PKI leaders and consultants are providing six programs a day to help women keep themselves and their families safe and calm. The first program of the day incorporates physical exercise and the others offer a variety of trauma experts, meditation and practical techniques. PKI is also providing online art and storytelling programs for children and sending volunteers to staff in-person programs to entertain and calm children.
Note: PKI is also providing Russian language briefings on the war by PKI board member and former Knesset member, Ksenia Svetlova. Ukrainian and Russian immigrants and refugees to Israel know very little about the history of the region, Hamas, the Palestinians and generally, what is going on. Svetlova, a former journalist who speaks Russian, English, Hebrew and Arabic is an expert on the region and is able to offer a nuanced understanding of why Hamas’ attacks are so horrific and require a powerful response … and why it is also valid to have humanitarian concerns about Israel’s actions in Gaza. Russian language media in Israel is notoriously right wing and rarely offers a balanced perspective on these types of issues. More than 8000 people watched the first briefing and 4400 have now watched the second one.