Background
Every year, tens of thousands of claims are filed in Israeli courts relating to child neglect or physical, sexual, or emotional abuse. Tens of thousands of these children are removed by the authorities from dangerous and life-threatening home lives. Without intervention, these children might fall victim to their circumstances. Continued under-nutrition, lack of attention, neglect, or worse will prevent them from receiving and achieving what they need in order to succeed in life and have a bright future.
Foster Care
WIZO is determined not to allow difficult circumstances to define the rest of a child’s life. To give these children what they need to succeed, WIZO created Neve WIZO. This project is a foster family community consisting of five houses located in Herzliya that provide a warm home and substitute family for children who have been removed from their homes by court order. Each house is home to eight children ranging in age from 3 to 18 and has a set of married couples as house-parents who provide the children with a nurturing environment, a stable home, rehabilitative care and as normal a life as possible. The children attend the school in the neighborhood and take part in extra-mural activities and sports, just like any other children.
The fostering couples are guided by a professional support team including a psychologist, social workers, and various therapists, all licensed and rigorously regulated and overseen by Israel’s Ministry of Welfare.
Neve WIZO is unique in that it cares for these children from childhood to adulthood and provides everything they need physically, academically, emotionally and socially to become healthy, responsible, functioning adults. Placed in a loving home and having supportive adults to guide them through life’s milestones gives the children hope and courage to overcome past hardships and reach their full potential.
Since its founding, more than 250 children have graduated from Neve WIZO, almost all of them at the age of 18 or 19, after graduating from high school and going on to do their compulsory military service.
Of the children who have graduated from Neve WIZO, approximately 80% finished high school with full matriculation, which is higher than the national average of about 69%. This number says a great deal about the educational value and contribution of Neve WIZO to these children.
For WIZO, it is not enough to provide these children a warm and loving home and professional care — Neve WIZO also puts a great emphasis on the children’s education. Almost all the children come to Neve WIZO with severe educational gaps and deficits, and many have dropped out of school entirely. WIZO is deeply committed to ensuring that these children integrate back into schools, overcome enormous educational gaps and deficits, and have every possibility to graduate high school, do meaningful service in the Israeli army, and be able to go on to higher education and to live as normal, healthy and productive adults.
Additional Resources
A television news feature on Neve WIZO from 2015: https://youtu.be/qoUTZ9YJ6hg
