Hand in Hand Association
Ruth’s Warm Home
Ruth Shitrit invests a good deal of her time, talent and money in the community, however first and foremost, these are for children. Together with activities for cancer patients, Shitrit is also very active on behalf of children from families in need. Among other things, she is a member of the administration of the “Hand in Hand” Association, and also founded the “Warm Home” in Yavneh.
The “Warm Home” is an island of love within a harsh and dangerous reality into which these children were born. Every day they spend a few hours there and receive everything their parents are not capable of providing: hot meals, an attentive ear, content enrichment, learning skills and social skills. This is the place where children discover that there are other ways instead of the path of violence and the hardships they have experienced so far, and these ways are good, correct and far more effective. In this manner the Association is able to help children acquire better and healthier life skills.
About the Hand in Hand Association
The association was established in 1982 in order to assist children in need
from struggling families, who are growing up in a daily reality that is not at all simple. For over thirty years, the Association has provided warmth, love, education and support for young children from 3 and a half to 7 years old, in the belief that in later years it is difficult and sometimes impossible to correct the disturbances that have developed in the child's psyche because of the huge degree of deficiency they have experienced.
Hand in Hand Association helps children through several projects:
• The Association operates "Warm Homes" throughout the country, to which children at-risk come after kindergarten, and where they stay until six in the evening every day, while they receive hot meals, emotional support, enrichment in a variety of areas, as well as a great deal of warmth and love. At present there are ten Warm Homes located in Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Netanya, Hod Hasharon, Holon and Yavne.
• The Association opens a window to the world of computers, Internet and high-tech for the children, from the understanding that this infrastructure is most essential for life in the 21st century.
• The Association operates a call center that operates around the clock and is manned by volunteers who respond to distress calls on various matters and do their utmost to assist.
• The Association distributes food baskets to families in need, who are referred to it by the welfare offices.