It's All About Building

There is much work to do in order to build Israel to the level necessary for the final redemption. I have had a dream of a treatment centre for years. I began working on developing this centre when I was in South Africa. For various reasons, I decided to relocate my full idea to Israel. The more my learning progresses and the more I work towards this dream, some revisions have taken place.

At the beginning of 2017 I wrote a post about our progress in developing this centre. You can read that post here. 

One major change or addition to my original idea, has been the addition of our very special service to empower orphans especially at the time that they marry. As a part of this we were starting to set up a store. Not just any store. This store had items we had spent hours in sourcing, gathering, displaying etc. Some of the items went directly to our orphans and some were sold to help to earn the funds necessary to cover the expenses in establishing and managing this service. As we progressed, a widow had wanted us to add some bridal gowns to what we do.

We had no space for the bridal gowns but did see the potential. We decided to give it a go, knowing we required the support of kind donors in the community in order to make this a reality. This was a very huge leap of faith and can succeed with the support of others.

The video that follows outlines where we were at about a 18 months ago.

One of our greatest challenges has been a venue to house these bridal gowns. Since we were developing this service from our home, the growth in this service has had an impact on us too and visa versa. Around Pesach last year, we had to move and since the bridal gowns were only being temporarily stored (in someone's apartment with little access for us to the gowns) we wanted a place where we could bring the bridal gowns too. We tried another crowd fundraiser but without success. Finally the move had to happen. We had a decision to make and there was not much time to plan it correctly.

The items from our store were sent off to the orphans from Bayit Lepletot who are preparing to get married. At least 8 orphan brides were assisted from these items. That part was good, but we did not obtain the necessary funds to move the gowns and set them up.

On our side, we made our move. We had many unforeseen challenges and set backs with the move but the bridal gowns came with us. Sadly the room for the bridal gowns is smaller than I thought it was. As you will see in the next video, we can hardly step back enough to video the gowns sufficiently. Every bride who has come to us has complained about the lack of space. There is not a lot we can do without 1) brides renting gowns which enables us to earn from the rental fee and 2) community support.

As you will see in the first video, our goal was to help orphan brides at no charge. Currently we can not do this unless we have a sponsor for the orphan bride. The simple reason is that we have not yet covered the costs involved in setting up this service. Our rental prices are kept on the lower range to help those marrying on a budget. While the brides stall in coming until we have larger space, we still, have rent of the space to be paid where they currently are.

I have many plans for developing the bridal service. It has so much potential, but only in the right venue.

The apartment we are in does have another room, smaller and darker. The other room was supposed to be for my OT treatments and consultations. Already I had to let go of a client due to lack of adequate space and equipment. I have also been delaying on marketing my OT services as the space is just not suitable.

We have begun another campaign. The next video shows the bridal gowns and tells a little about what all this is aimed towards, ie the development of my full vision.

Please take a look at both videos and visit our crowd fundraiser. Crowd Fundraising has become a very effective and popular way to come up with the funds to begin a venture, expand a business, improve a service, bring out a new product. We do have a few products on the go that we are developing, however, our first major need is the venue, the location to house the work that we are doing.

We have some very touching letters of thanks from those we have assisted. Please help us to continue to grow and develop what we are doing. Please help us to build this centre. In doing so, you will enable me to use all of these skills, knowledge and insight that Hashem has blessed me with, in order to give of myself in the very best way possible. 

Take a look at the image at the start of this blog post. What a difference a venue makes when there is space, light and the opportunity to breath and move and really experience the location or room. Look again at our video. The work we are doing deserves the appropriate venue so as to help our clients in the best possible way. 

Please share the campaign. If you email me a capture of your sharing the campaign, I will email you a Pdf copy of a poem and drawing that I wrote and drew some years ago. That is my thank you for every share of this campaign.

Thank you for your assistance

This post is prepared for you by

Shoshanah Shear

Occupational Therapist, healing facilitator, certified infant massage instructor, freelance writer and co-author of "Tuvia Finds His Freedom" and author of "Healing Your Life Through Activity - An Occupational Therapist's Story"

Growth and Development

When moving to Israel, many find themselves in a new or developing area, there are naturally many challenges. Many wont mention prior to your moving in that there might not be telephone lines yet, other necessities, also might take a while to develop. However, if one takes a step back and looks at the progress, it is very exciting to be a part of building the Land of Israel.

The photographs in this post are all by Shear Success Photographers

When we first moved into the area we are currently in, the buildings opposite and next to us were still being completed. The park just opposite was also incomplete.

Here you can see some of the just started buildings and the mounds of earth.

If you look closely, you can see the lamps are not yet on the tops of the lamp posts and there is a fence surrounding this park. The fence was the Eiruv which since has been moved back quite considerably.

Here you can see that the lamp posts now have lamps and there are a few shelters to offer shade for those who wish to sit down.

In the image above you can also see the children's creativity in developing their own maze to play and cycle through.

Here you can see the development of the buildings and the green starting. This green has all been "self-sewn" ie no people had yet introduced any plants here.

During the winter, we even enjoyed the beauty and blessing of snow in the area. As you see, this was a few months prior to some shown already as the shelters were not there yet and the Eiruv was still near our apartment.

In this image you can see some young trees have been planted. A very exciting time, though I am not sure why this was not carried out at Tu B'Shvat time.

Here you can see the laborers planting grass.

Finally the buildings opposite are complete, the trees and grass are complete, now we wait to discover what will be in the center of the park.

Whatever it will be, it is certainly very heartwarming to have a visual reminder that when the Jews inhabit the Land of Israel there is growth and development.