WIZO’s efforts to assist Ukrainian immigrants

Here is a report from Ora Korazim, chairperson of WIZO Israel, regarding the efforts of WIZO branches to assist Ukrainian immigrants.

Dear Chaverot,

For the past few weeks, WIZO Israel has been working tirelessly to assist immigrants arriving from Ukraine.

We launched a national social media campaign, inviting immigrants to come to our 46 “bigudiot” (second hand clothing shops) around Israel, and get all the clothing and other personal items that they need.

We have established a group of WIZO Israel center chairpersons who are responsible for all national activities.

Many Ukrainian olim have come to us, and each member of the family chooses clothes, toys, shoes, coats, blankets and housewares.

Of course, everything is free.

In addition, our center operate as donation centers. For example, the WIZO Zichron Yaakov center, in collaboration with the local government, initiated a donation drive, asking that food, clothing, laptops and other items needed by the immigrants, be brought to the WIZO center.

Town residents responded with overwhelming generosity, and every day the municipality fills a truckful of donations and transfers them to an immigrant absorption center in Haifa.

We are in close contact with local municipal governments around the country, who refer the immigrants to our centeres, where they receive what they need.

We are also in continuous contact with absorption centers in various cities, to be sure that each family gets the things it needs.

In Rishon Lezion and Bat Yam, we recruited Russian-speaking volunteers, and we adopted families who came to the city, and purchased appliances such as washing machines, refrigerators, as well as furniture, with donations we raised.

We are also trying to help the immigrants find work. We assisted one of the fathers in finding a job as a football coach for the children’s team in  Rishon Lezion.

The following photographs were taken in the “bigudit” in the WIZO Israel center in Afula.