children's organization in Israel

Children's Organizations in Israel

Children's Town, Jerusalem

Children's Town in Jerusalem is Israel's top institution dedicated to the care of Israeli children. It provides services for about 1,000 children ranging from toddlers to pre-high school age. Children's Town has various centers including day nurseries, schools, a job-training center, an immigration absorption center, and an orphanage. Children's Town tries to provide a home and an education for children from the streets and broken homes. Children's Town was established 60 years ago as a continuation of the Children's Day and Nurseries Organization. Find out more information about Children's Town, Jerusalem, on their website.

Shalva Care Center

The Shalva organization provides mentally and physically handicapped children an education in a friendly atmosphere where each child can work at his or her own level. Through specialized learning rooms, including a Mutli-Sensory Room, Music Room, and a Physiotherapy Room, the children receive care adapted to their special needs.

Na'amat

Na'amat was formerly known as The Council of Women Workers of the Histadrut Federation of Labor Unions. The Histadrut began in the 1920s as a provider of welfare services to its members, and The Council of Women Workers was the Histadrut women's social service organization. The council provided daycare centers and a network of dormitory facilities for the children of working mothers. The organization utilized the children's village type model because it provided a good environment for education and communal living. The Histadrut was recently renamed The General Federation of Labor, and Na'amat is the current women's organization. The organization provides a chain of day care centers and kindergartens for children from disadvantage families, and for those of working mothers.

Children Teaching Children

Begun in 1987, Children Teaching Children is an educational program that brings Jewish and Arab children together to reduce the ethnic tension and embrace diversity. Through the use of workshops, games, courses, and student committees, these children discover common interests and goals. The educators of CTC want to impress upon these children that they are the future leaders of Israel, and they have the ability to change the tension and conflict in their country. CTC was honored at the World Exposition 2000 in the category of Humankind.
The Women's International Zionist Organization

WIZO was founded in 1920 and became a major player in the institutional placement of young children. Its founders also recognized the needs of women and children concerning malnutrition and illness due to the lack of a sufficient health care system at the time. WIZO opened the first baby home in Jerusalem in 1924 to care for the neglected babies, and followed soon after with several dormitory schools for adolescent girls. This organization started numerous educational programs concerning child welfare, agricultural training, and nurses' preparation training to care for the institutionalized babies in the homes. Today the organization sponsors various institutions and services for infants, children, women, and the elderly including education, childcare, community welfare, shelters for battered women, single parent services, and programs for the elderly.

Childcare Children in Israel Education History of Orphanages Kibbutz Life Poverty

Sources:
"Children's Day Nurseries in Israel." (http://www.childrenstown.org/descp.htm).
"Children Teaching Children in Israel." (http://www.oneworld.net/anydoc.cgi?url=http://www.oneworld.org/euconflict/pbp_f/6/4_child_.htm).
Jaffe, Eliezer D. 1982. Child Welfare in Israel. New York:Praeger.
Jaffe,Eliezer D. 1983. Special Aspects of Education 2: Israelis in Institutions: Studies in Child Placement Practice and Policy. New York: Science Publishers Inc.
"Shalva Care Center." (http://www.shalva.org.il/care.htm).
"Union responses to a changing environment: The New Histadrut." (http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inst/papers/1999/dp104/index.htm).
"WIZO-The Women's International Zionist Organization." (http://www.wzo.org.il/home/movement/wizo.htm).

This website was created in the Fall of 2000 by Rachel Geller, Allison Miller, Diana Osborn, and Iris Travis, student at Tulane University. This website is part of a class project for Professor April Brayfield's Sociology 119: Children and Society Class. Learn about children in other countries at The Children Around the World webpage.
This website was created on December 6, 2000.