As you all know, the seven days cease fire has ended and we are back to hearing “Tseva Adom, outgoing artillery fire, jets flying overhead, 50 caliber machine gun fire and Iron Dome intercepting incoming Kassams.

Things on the streets are looking up a bit as the war drags on.  

 

In spite of all this, some residents are choosing to return home to Sderot. There are now an estimated 5000 residents in Sderot. More stores are beginning to reopen, you now have a choice of five different markets to shop at, you can now buy a pizza, a shawarma or hamburger from a fast-food restaurant, we now have one lumber yard/ hardware store open and Auto Angle, our mechanic is open.

 We are now gearing up to help those who are returning to their homes. When they left, they had no time, nor did they think about the food that was left in their refrigerator. In some areas, the electric was out for several days. Needless to say, we need to take people shopping to at least get them started again.  

During the cease fire, we went to a unit that is on the Gaza border. We brought them some new socks, tee shirts, underwear and Eti made them some goodie bags. We told you in our last newsletter that some of our citizens were called up to fight and some of them are in this unit, which made it even more special to be able to help them.

 

These are the smiles we see when we give clothing to people who left Sderot in a hurry on the 8^th of October and have not been back since, nor have they worked since then. Here is one thank you note we got, translated for you…

 

Eti, Have a good week

I wanted to say a huge thank you for the clothes, the children were very happy and were really excited  to see the clothes, they said “wow what a fun, Nike”. Topaz was really happy about the shoes, they fit her perfectly and she told me she was very happy to receive them.

All the clothes each child we received fit them and they were happy and excited.

Bless you and lots of health and strength to continue what you do for the community.

thank you

 

אתי שבוע טוב

רציתי להגיד לכם תודה ענקית על הבגדים , הילדים מאוד שמחו והיו ממש נלהבים ונרגשים לראות את הבגדים, אמרו וואו איזה כיף נייק , וטופז ממש שמחה על הנעלים הם עלו עליה בול ואמרה לי שהיא שמחה מאוד לקבל אותם.

כל ילד קיבל 5 בגדים ומדדו והתלהבו ושמחו ונרגשו.

תבורוכו והמון בריאות וכח להמשיך את מה שאתם עושים למען הקהילה. 

תודה

 

 

The people of Sderot are a resilient people. They would have to be to live like this for the past twenty-one years. After every “Tseva Adom” we get up, get out of our bomb shelters and go on with life; today is no different. In the midst of war, the covenant commandment of circumcision (brit milah) on the eight day still continues.  Boys are making that passage into manhood through their Bar mitzvah and young lovers are still getting married. Life can’t stop.  Life must go on.

We were invited to a Brit Milah last night and today we went to Avi’s daughter’s wedding. If you missed our story about Avi, you can click here to read it.

The wedding was a typical Jewish wedding with a few exceptions. In the background you could hear out going artillery fire, jets and helicopters flying overhead and the explosions of two Kassam rockets which the iron dome took out. The guests were your typical wedding goers with the exception of the platoon of soldiers who came to their friend’s wedding. The food, the music and the dancing were also typical for a Jewish wedding, except for another exception… the soldiers were dancing with one hand on the shoulder of the person next to him and the other was on his rifle. 

 

We continue with our Friday/ Shabbat meal distribution, providing for people who come to us for food and clothing. We have stocked our shelves with diapers, baby wipes and clothing as we anticipate our residents coming back home little by little.

We will once again be stocking our shelves with canned goods and nonperishable items. We have enough food coming on Sunday for one hundred families so that will free up some resources to help returning families with perishable items they will need.  This shipment of canned goods is coming from another organization here in Israel who support us as well as other relief organization. They allow our resources to go much further and our help to be that much more effective.

If you would like to help in making our residents of Sderot lives a little better, a little easier, just click here or click the donate button on the right of this page .

It is through your generosity, your love and support the we are able to do what we do. You empower us to do what we do and allow us to be  who we are Hope For Sderot.

Thank you for you love, prayers and support.

Stewart Ganulin

Director,

Hope For Sderot