The Esther and Pedro Rosenblatt Foundation was honored have witnessed the delivery of an adaptive bike from Help Hope Live to Carl, who has been diagnosed with hydrocephalus. He has always wanted to ride a bike on his own with his two siblings and be able to exercise. It was an honor to be able to impact this family and hopefully many more will be able to get tools to improve their lives.

Last week, on Friday, myself and my mom were honored to see an adaptive bike from Help Hope Live be delivered to a kid named Carl, who has been diagnosed with hydrocephalus. He has always wanted to ride a bike on his own with his two siblings, and because of the Esther and Pedro Rosenblatt Foundation he finally can! We were so excited to be apart of this event, and to see the joy from Carl and his family was such an honor and showed us directly how our work is impacting these families. Here are some pictures and a link that explains more about the family and how the bike will impact Carl’s life. I hope these photos bring you as much joy as it did to us! 

Lilly

On behalf of Larger than Life’s sick children and their families, the Kindergarten of Dreams team and all of us here at Larger than Life in Israel, allow me to express our deepest heartfelt gratitude for your generous donation to the Kindergarten of Dreams program. Thanks to the generosity of the Esther and Pedro Rosenblatt Foundation, we are able to complete our mission and fulfill the vision to establish a safe and empowering early childhood rehabilitating Educational haven for children with cancer in the Negev, and allow them to experience a normative educational and empowering childhood during their heroic fight with the disease Your kind support will also enable us to complete the building of this unique facility as the first educational center in the Negev built using strict standards of green construction, demonstrating the ‘Clean Outside and Healthy Inside’ approach for our children and for a better sustainable future. Thank you for giving us another opportunity to honor the legacy of the late Esther and Pedro Z”l, and for your solid partnership. With our deep appreciation, Larger than Life Family.

February 20, 2022

Dear partners at the Ester and Pedro Rosenblatt Foundation,

Thanks to the generous support of your foundation, children from Ofakim, Dimona and Keryat Gat, (low income municipalities at the south of Israel) have the
opportunity to participate in the 3D Modeling and Printing program.

It is our great pleasure to share with you two success stories of our young participants, as was told by their instructors:

“Adi is from Dimona, a 6th grade student who had a difficult start. At the beginning of the year she was struggling with her studies, was very frustrated and even reached a point that she came to the activity reluctant. Whenever she had a question, I came to sit by her, and did my best to help her. The turning point was one day; she was in tears due to her frustration. I came to sit with her, telling her I am very proud of all her efforts, and that I can see how hard she tries and I admire her for that. She dried her tears and continued with the activity. I helped her with her programmed model. From week to week, our personal connection became stronger, she worked very well, and was proud of her results. Today, she takes an active part at the sessions, and it is clear that she’s in a different place, much better.”

“Dan is one of my students. He is a very special kid, with autism, that is having difficulties with fine motor skills. At the beginning of the year, he had difficulties with
building the models. He used to give up and say: “I have autism so I can’t do that”. I set with him, told him about myself, and I felt he opened up to me. Since then he
feels more comfortable with me, and it seems that he feels more comfortable to challenge himself with the different tasks at the activity. I can see that his approach
changed: he doesn’t give up, and his friends give him a lot of support. After insisting with him to try first, because the experience is as important as the success, I feel he learned that the process is also important and not just the end product.”

Meet Avi, Meira and Eliran. Avi and Meira are a couple who wanted to raise a child together but were unable to conceive. After investigating several possible avenues, including surrogacy, they decided that fostering would be the option best suited for them.

After passing Orr Shalom’s extensive screening process and training courses, Avi and Meira received the phone call they had been anxiously anticipating: There was a baby boy who needed a foster family.

When they met Eliran, he was 8 months old. He had been born to a teenager who had been living on the streets. She was an addict and had been using drugs while pregnant with Eliran, and he was born with complications including withdrawal from drugs and alcohol. He was in the lowest percentile for height and weight. He cried all the time. Avi and Meira did everything they had learned through Orr Shalom in order to acclimate Eliran to their home. They used the same laundry detergent that had been used in the hospital so that Eliran would smell the same smells. They did not let any of their family or friends hold Eliran for the first few months, so that Eliran would learn that Avi and Meira were the stable characters in his life. But it was a difficult transition: Eliran cried seemingly without pause for nearly three months. In their most exhausted moments Avi and Meira thought to themselves, is this too much? What were we thinking? Wracked by guilt, they turned to their Orr Shalom social worker, who was making weekly visits to their home. She held their questions and their exhaustion and counselled them through the most difficult parts of this transition.

Now their social worker typically visits their home once a month. Eliran is now 4 years old and is still the smallest in his preschool, wearing clothes made for one-year-olds. He has received as ASD diagnosis and has several developmental and emotional delays as compared to his peers. At the same time, Eliran is happy and bonded to Avi and Meira.

Avi and Meira are in constant contact with their Orr Shalom team, who have provided continuous support and practical and emotional assistance in their journey. From advocating for their rights to have access to Eliran’s medical history, providing the family with personal aides, helping Eliran receive his diagnoses and register in the right preschool, Avi and Meira know that they can count on their Orr Shalom team for anything and everything. Our ability to ensure a positive foster experience is made possible thanks to the generosity of the Esther and Pedro Rosenblatt Foundation.

Meet Sofia, now 16 years old (as of 2022). Sofia was abandoned at birth in the hospital after she was discovered to have Down ’s syndrome. Sofia’s mother was very young and had no parental support of her own, and neither she nor Sofia’s father were prepared to care for a baby with special needs. Sofia has grown up in a wonderful foster family who has cared for her every material, emotional, and developmental need. Her foster family has been accompanied from the very beginning of the process by Orr Shalom’s professional team of social workers. Thanks to the Esther and Pedro Rosenblatt Foundation, Orr Shalom has been able to provide Sofia’s parents with an aid who provides several hours a week of assistance with Sofia’s therapeutic plan.

“The last time Lavi went to kindergarten was at a Hanukkah party in a nursery. At the age of one year and seven months, he was diagnosed with cancer, started treatments for leukemia and could not reach an educational setting. It was a difficult year and we did not see the end of that period. “When the doctors gave us the OK to enter lavi to the kindergarten of Dreams, it was a dream come true. Lavi was happy to meet children his age, play, get everything a toddler needs to develop. You could go back to routine, go to work and run a regular home. It was definitely a Hanukkah miracle.”

Find out more details about what is included in the assistance program and how the application process works.