Residential homes and school for mentally disabled children and women

You will typically do your internships or volunteering at all of the organisations presented on this page, however for participants of special interests, it is possible to focus on one certain organisation only.

 

Beyt Al Nur is a school and residential home for children and youth aged 2-20 years who are mildly mentally challenged. There are 6 classes, each with around 13 children. Classes take place Sundays to Thursdays from 7 am to 4 pm, as in Israel the weekend is on Fridays and Saturdays). The director of the institution has studied in Germany and can speak German and English. Some of the children stay at the institution's residential home, others with their families. At the residential home there are also some over 20 year olds who work at a place called MAAAS, where as part of occupational therapy they do simple works such as making fabric bags.

 

The Tamra Hostel comprises of three houses accommodating women with slight mental disabilities. Two of these residential homes provide room for 17 women who are able to live almost completely on their own, only supervised by one social worker. Those women have regular jobs, mostly in public institutions and with MAAAS. With their earnings, they are able to arrange annual excursions abroad; the last two trips brought the women to Turkey (Antalya) and Jordan.

 

The third residential home accommodates 16 women in 9 rooms. These women need more support and day caree. Additionally, it is the concept that women of different degrees of disabilities stay together, providing support to each other and taking different responsibilities in the daily common duties.

 

Some of the women are Christians, others are Muslims, some go to Church and others to mosque, but basically they live together without any interference based on different religious backgrounds.

 

One will notice, that the disabled are amazingly well integrated in the community of the town of Tamra. To respect the disabled people, their accommodation is just named "Tamra Hostel" and the buildings are part of a regular residential neighbourhood. The women fully participate in the town’s social life and many local volunteers regularly support the centres. 

 

Many of the women go swimming on a regular basis and take part in competitions for disabled people. The swimming team of Tamra is the most successful team of disabled swimmers in the whole of Israel.

 

Interns and volunteers can take part in teaching at the school, day care for children and women (experience in nutrition and medicine use is appreciated), occupational therapy (with MAAAS), psychology (there is a psychologist coming weekly to the houses) and social work.