Center For Children With Special needs Concludes Year

DNEPROPETROVSK, Ukraine [FJC] — The Dnepropetrovsk Education Resource Center for special needs’ children, which is run by the ‘Beit Chana’ Women’s Pedagogical College, hosted a celebration to mark the end of the school year. The party involved 27 pupils and their parents, who were thrilled to witness their children in this wonderful learning environment.

The children took the opportunity to demonstrate several different exercises for developing their motor skills, followed by a puppet show. Gathering round small trees, the youngsters and parents hung up symbolic fruit they made with their own hands a few days earlier. Participants enjoyed a good number of riddles and parents were challenged in a friendly contest on cooking recipes.

“As the coordinator of a charity project here, it has been nearly a year that I have been communicating with these children, spending Shabbat and various events with them, including the holidays and lessons on Jewish traditions,” explained Anna Asmolkova, who heads the charity project ‘Raising children in the spirit of the history, culture and traditions of the Jewish people’. “In that time, we have become friends and I feel privileged to be invited to join them for this final year-end event”.

The Educational Resource Center is particularly noted for its warm, loving and care-filled atmosphere, not to mention the courage and hope of the families involved. It is likely that these youngsters will miss their teachers, mentors and peers during their summer break. On the other hand, it is just as likely that these teachers and mentors will look forward to seeing their bright smiling faces when the Center resumes activities in the fall.

The Educational Resource Center and the ‘Beit Chana’ Pedagogical College are supported by the Ohr Avner Foundation, headed and underwritten by FJC President Lev Leviev. These are over fiftey institutions belonging to the Ohr Avner network in Ukraine, which are transforming Jewish life in the region.