“The average person can’t appreciate what poverty is,” says Tefilla Buxbaum, Director of Resource and Development at Yad Ezra V’Shulamit Children’s Centre in Jerusalem. “It means sending children to school with only the crusts of bread left behind from sandwiches they ate the day before, or with no food whatsoever.”
Zahava recently returned to the Yad Ezra V’Shulamit Children’s Centre, excitedly waving her first-ever pay cheque. Now working as a salesperson, the 18-year-old independently supports herself. She has completely turned her life around from her younger days when Yad Ezra V’Shulamit was a lifeline to her and her siblings.
It had been a long, arduous journey for this quiet young lady. No longer was she the timid, insecure four-year-old child who initially walked into the Centre clinging to her mother’s hand. That self-confidence was apparent as she proudly donated Tzedakah to the Centre that served as her home-from- home for over thirteen years.
