Family home Sa’ad – Our children

In our family unit there are twelve children ranging from the ages nine to eighteen. We are bringing up these children together with our children. In practice we are…

The family unit was set up in 1997 in the religious kibbutz Saad. This is a place where children and youth live because social workers realized their parents were unable to bring them up in their natural environment. In our family unit there are twelve children ranging from the ages nine to eighteen. Our names are Shmuel and Vered Glass and we as a married couple are bringing up these children together with our children. In practice we are responsible in every realm; hot nourishing meals every day; clean washing, giving individual attention to each child, involvement in their school progress and keeping  a check with their teachers, and also their health. Our children are facing a very hard reality. Violence and drugs, sexual and verbal abuse, poverty and total neglect. These are the issues that have caused the welfare to take these children out of their homes. Many of the children are in our home for many years and this as their home for everything .Our aspirations are to show to give them another kind of life. Normal family living, respect for each other and where the regular needs of children are seen to.
Kibbuts Saad is situated in the Gaza area three kilometers from the border. For the past  fourteen years  the kibbutz has been under the threaten of missiles, In our home we added protective rooms so in the case of alarm ZEVA ADOM we must reach the room between 3-7 seconds. I n this atmosphere we have to carry on normal life. And as you can imagine amongst these children anxiety and tension are much higher and we see changes in their behavior. For example fear to sleep or shower on their own
anger and wetting their beds at night. The family unit receives a budget from the educational department but this is just enough for basic needs and we try very hard to budget wisely. And despite this we try very hard to give our children a warm happy home in which all their needs are cared for.

We as Yad L’Ami, turns to you for help. We feel that Shlomo and Vered  shouldn’t be worrying all the time how to manage.  They need to use their time better and we want to encourage them to give these children an opportunity for independence. Join them in their efforts to ensure a better future for those children in Israel.