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Social Welfare -
Community
Tenufa Bakehila – Supporting low-income families in Kiryat Gat
Tenufa Bakehila (Building Hope) is an Israeli not-for-profit organisation supporting families living in poverty by providing urgent home repairs and social care assistance. Operating in 11 cities throughout Israel, the organisation has worked in over 4,400 homes during the last 24 years.
JNF UK is working in partnership with Tenufa Bakehila to expand the services they offer in Kiryat Gat and Kiryat Malachi in the Northern Negev. These are two of the most socio-economically challenged towns in Israel.
Tenufa Bakehila organises repair work in homes that need urgent attention including repairing leaky roofs and mouldy inner walls, replacing broken kitchens and electrical systems. All work carried out is at no cost to the families. The work that is done not only fixes the problem in the home but also restores the family’s sense of pride, encouraging them to improve their life situation and strive for change.
Following renovation work, Tenufa Bakehila brings in social workers to help the family with other challenges they face. Social workers meet the family on a regular basis and help in various areas, including assisting unemployed parents to get back to work, helping children who are falling behind in school and encouraging abused women and children to seek assistance.
Most of the work is carried out by 10 handymen who are employed by the organisation nationwide. They are joined by around 700 volunteers a year, some of who are proper contractors who wish to do a “mitzvah”. In addition to providing repairs and renovations, these handymen engage the families in the task and help empower them in the process of improving their physical environment. This process also helps the residents to start to taking responsibility for the upkeep of their own homes in the future. The average cost of a home intervention is 6,000 NIS and takes 2-4 days to complete.
Chava, a single mother from Kiryat Gat, was forced to live in her poverty-stricken mother’s flat with her four young children after her husband left her. The family could barely afford food, let alone home improvements. Their living conditions deteriorated and a clogged drain pipe leaked rancid water into the flat spreading toxic mould throughout the property. Social services removed the children and the family’s life spiralled out of control. But, with skilled hands and warm hearts, Building Hope stepped in to help Chava’s family move towards a brighter future.
Felix, a Holocaust survivor from Kiryat Gat, could not afford basic necessities, including electricity, and his home had fallen into a state of disrepair. JNF UK’s project, Building Hope, restored Felix’s living conditions and gave him the support to enable him to gain some emotional and financial stability.
Hundreds more cases like Chava’s and Felix’s are counting on your support.
After October 7th, Tenufa Bakehila’s home-repair work slowed down so the organisation quickly pivoted to help the thousands of families in Israel who were exposed to the threat of missiles by repairing 90 bomb shelters.
Tenufa Bakehila can only meet the needs of 30% of the requests they receive. JNF UK is helping them to expand. With your support JNF UK will provide funding for additional staff, vehicles, building materials and other running costs so that more people’s lives can be improved.