Shira 

Shira had once been the girl she wanted to be. In school, she scored well on exams, completed her homework and took an active part in classroom discussions. A high-achiever, she was also a good mixer, with a ready smile, popular with her classmates and a good friend.

But that was “Before.” Before Shira’s father was laid off from his factory job and began moping around the house all day, wallowing in his anger. Before her mother’s wrinkles deepened and she slowly withdrew from her children and their needs. Before the younger children turned more and more to their elder sister, Shira, to take care of them.

Shira took on after-school work to replace her father’s lost income. Between school and her job, she fed her siblings, bathed them and prepared them for bed. She had little help from her depressed mother. Emotionally and physically exhausted, Shira no longer had the time or energy for schoolwork. Her grades began to slip, but she was too worn out to care. She was barely passing.

Fortunately, Shira’s teacher did care. Realizing that her once-top student would no longer qualify to take the Bagrut, the mandatory exams for university admission, she looked for help. She found it in the EMUNAH Mechina R.E.S.C.U.E. Program at the Florence and Joseph Appleman College of Art and Technology, the only Mechina (preparatory) program in Israel in a religious setting.

Although the EMUNAH R.E.S.C.U.E. Program opened its doors to Shira, her domestic and emotional problems entered with her. As a student, she kept to herself, arriving at school often untidy, without her homework completed, and sometimes, failed to appear at all. Shira showed ability, but her domestic situation was holding her back. It took EMUNAH social workers, counselors and teachers concerted effort to ferret out why this promising student seemed so burdened by life. She seemed unable to take full advantage of this wonderful second chance the College was granting her.

After much detective work, Shira’s “secrets” were discovered.

Her reticence, they learned, stemmed from shame at her family’s poverty and the fear that others would hear about it. She never guessed how many of the other 120 students were in a similar situation. So many of her schoolmates had dealt with the same challenges—family responsibilities to care for younger siblings and the economic need to work in order to put food on the family table. All of Shira’s earnings went to support the family.

She left nothing for herself—nothing for basic necessities, like clothing. There were days she lacked even the small change for bus fare. On those days, Shira simply didn’t come to school at all.

The R.E.S.C.U.E. team sprung into action. Shira become one of the fifty percent of the student body to receive daily stipends besides her paid tuition. Food was sent to her home for the family, with “extras” for holidays. A small fund provided Shira with what an 18-year-old girl needs—a haircut, backpack, shoes.

The material help was only part of the benefits provided.

Her counselor encouraged Shira to let go of some of her sense of responsibility for her siblings, to understand that the entire burden of their circumstances was not hers alone to bear, and to persuade her to focus on her studies so that her eventual profession would elevate her and her family both economically and socially. Her talent for mathematics would serve her well in Israel.

It is a slow process to transform a student from difficult circumstances into an ambitious achiever, but the road is being taken. Shira is developing into the person she was meant to be— a confident, outgoing and positive young lady with a future she can look forward to, thanks to EMUNAH.



The EMUNAH Mechina Reach Educational Success Care Unit (R.E.S.C.U.E.) Program
Since its inception in 2002, the Mechina Program has afforded hundreds of young women a second chance to pass the Bagrut examination required for higher education in Israel. Its students come from economically and culturally disadvantaged families and were failing in regular high school programs. Comprehensive academic, financial, career and psychological support services have rescued them, elevating their status in society through education and the means for financial independence. This program is unique in Israel for its religious atmosphere, individualized services and academic success.

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