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It has taken many weeks for teachers and children to settle back to school routine after the shock and upheaval of the outbreak of war on 7th October, followed by continuing stress felt by everyone.
Although the end of the calendar year has arrived, only now are we receiving the requests from high schools that usually come much earlier.
This past week four counsellors, teaching in schools from Katsrin in the Golan to the Krayot area near Haifa, have asked us for grants- one is a request for emotional support treatment for 10 children, several of whose lives have been impinged by the current war, and three requests are for regular assessment testing.
We are also pleased to hear that the remedial teaching classes in our elementary schools in Jerusalem and Kiryat Yam are running to schedule. In addition to the afternoon classes run by Neve Yosef Matnas in the area just above downtown Haifa, the Hebrew remedial reading project there has now been expanded to include midday classes in a local school. Among the children needing these lessons are 10-year-olds who still cannot read. We are delighted that we have 5 new volunteers who give extra reading practice to children in both parts of this project.
Thanks to the generosity of donors in response to our special emergency campaign, we have been able to pass funds again to the SELAH project that gives emotional support to new immigrant children who have suffered personal trauma in the current crisis.
Our schools know that this year they can turn to the Talia Trust to finance therapies that their students now need, in addition to our regular grants.