Why do we help refugee and asylum-seeker children?

Elifelet – Citizens for Refugee Children – aims to provide asylum-seeker children with a positive childhood, to support their proper development and to narrow the gaps between the inadequate institutional support and the acute needs of the children. The organization works in cooperation with a range of relevant groups and tailors its response in accordance with the needs in the field.

The Elifelet Blanket

Elifelet creates a holistic and supportive blanket, which takes into account the set of needs of the children from morning to evening, from early childhood to the end of elementary school, in educational frameworks and at home, in order to narrow physical, emotional, and developmental gaps that are not being addressed institutionally.

Why do we help refugee and asylum-seeker children?

Because every child deserves to enjoy their childhood and to live a good and secure life.

But this right is not granted to children from the refugee and asylum-seeker community in Israel.

Due to the danger facing asylum seekers in their countries of origin, Israel follows international law and has not expelled them to Sudan and Eritrea. However, after more than a decade in Israel they have not received a permanent status and equal rights.

The parents of asylum-seeker children work long hours at manual labor with low salaries. Most toddlers who were born in Israel are sent to “babysitters” – improvised child-care centers that were established by African women, in small and neglected apartments and sometimes in basements and rooms without light or air. The children spend their days staring at the television screen, without games and without suitable stimulating and enriching activities, and suffer from a serious lack of physical contact and attention. Since 2010, 19 babies have died in these kindergartens.

In light of their early life circumstances, many asylum-seeker children suffer from emotional problems and developmental delays that hinder them in the educational system. There we introduce them to the Elifelet after-school centers, and to our welfare and therapy system, in order to help them bridge the gaps towards a brighter future.

Elifelet's vision

To allow all Israeli asylum-seeker children to dream and to fulfil their dreams, while guaranteeing the physical and emotional safety of them and their families.

"כל ילד הוא עולם מלא וצריך להיאבק על זכותו להיות כזה גם אם הוא במקרה לא שייך לעם שלנו. אליפלט עושה זאת במקומות שבהם המדינה מתכחשת לאחריותה ומתכחשת לילדים החיים בה."

-דויד גרוסמן, חבר ועד מנהל