The fifth day of Chesed Mission started for 10 girls at 5:30am, where they walked with Ms. Lamm to Hadaya and the Kotel to pray at sunrise. The first stop for the whole group was Ilanot School for Special Children, where we met some of the students who go there. These students have various disabilities and it was hard for us to communicate with them. We had the opportunitiy to listen to their school choir. You could tell in their passion that they not only loved to sing but it was their happy place. That showed us that just like we have to find our happy place for even the smallest of bad days, they use their happy place to always remember that life is a gift even with a disability.
Our second stop was to United Hatzalah, where we got to learn about how they are innovating to reduce the response time to any emergency. We then dedicated a defibrillator to help save lives.
After that, we went to Afikim, an after school program for children at risk. We played bingo with questions about Israel and then had a big dance party where a lot of us created special bonds with the children that made it hard to leave.
Our last stop of the day was Susan’s House, where we learned how the organization got started and what they do to help teenagers at risk. We then got to see all the different works of art that the teenagers have learned how to make and then we even got to shop some of their handmade items.
While the day may have started off hard as the day went on it became more clear why Illanot was the first stop on our journey and why what we are doing on Chesed Mission is very important! ~Frieda Maleh and Marcelle Sasson, Class of 2021
