ISRAEL/ETHIOPIA: Israeli NGO helps Ethiopian immigrants who lost their parents take responsibility for their younger siblings

Record ID: 396157

  • Title: ISRAEL/ETHIOPIA: Israeli NGO helps Ethiopian immigrants who lost their parents take responsibility for their younger siblings
  • Date: 17th August 2011
  • Summary: ETHIOPIAN ORPHANS ATTEND WORKSHOP ORGANISED BY SELAH TO SUPPORT THEM AS HEADS OF FAMILY FOR THEIR YOUNGER SIBLINGS ETHIOPIAN WOMAN DURING WORKSHOP ETHIOPIAN MEN DURING WORKSHOP (SOUNDBITE) (English) MICHA FELDMANN, HEAD OF THE ETHIOPIAN DEPARTMENT AT SELAH, SAYING "On the one hand it's giving them the opportunity to meet with one another, find out that they are not alo
  • Embargoed: 1st September 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel, Ethiopia
  • City:
  • Country: Israel Ethiopia
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA11MQZW4G4DWZT003NJM5UR8ES
  • Story Text: The parents of Mintamer Muluye and her eight siblings died of illness in Gondar, Ethiopia, while preparing to immigrate to Israel.
    Seven years later, at the young age of 23, an Israeli NGO is helping her to cope with the dilemmas and hardships of providing primary care for four of her siblings who are too young to fend for themselves.
    At a summer workshop organised by the Israeli "Selah" group which provides care to new immigrants caught in tragedies or trauma, Muluye and Ethiopian immigrants in similar situations receive practical and emotional support.
    Micha Feldmann, head of Selah's Ethiopian department, carries out the sessions in the Amharic, the native language of the participants.
    "On the one hand it's giving them the opportunity to meet with one another, find out that they are not alone in this challenge of raising younger siblings, giving them some, as you have seen in the session, some psychological help with the dilemmas that they have and on the other hand, more for the children but some are also for the older ones, give them two days of fun. And at the same time, to let them see place in Israel that usually new immigrants don't get to," Feldmann told Reuters.
    He added that since the founding of the organisation in 1993, it has assisted 10,000 immigrant families from various countries, 30 percent of which came from Ethiopia.
    Those Ethiopian siblings who Selah assisted in taking the role of parents, praise the organisation's contribution.
    "About 'Selah', they help us during holidays when they conduct seminars, they bring me and my siblings to visit various places that otherwise we can't afford. It's very significant assistance. In addition, meeting other people with similar problems, just sitting and being together, while sharing experiences, it gives us strength to cope together. Otherwise, we would have felt lonely, but Selah's assistance gives us strength," said Muluye, who managed to get her high school diploma thanks to 'Selah's financial assistance.
    More than 100,000 Ethiopian Jews -- known as Falash Mura already live in Israel. Many arrived in airlifts in the 1980s and 1990s in times of hunger and political strife in Ethiopia from Gondar, Ethiopia -- where Ethiopian Jews originate from.
    But even in Israel, many Falash Mura often face difficulties, including enrolling their children in schools. Others take long to fit into the Israeli society.
    Another participant in the workshop, 27-year-old Gashaw Alame whose parents died of illness while already in Israel, said that he and his five younger siblings wouldn't have survived without Selah's support.
    "It (referring to Selah seminar) contributed so much to me, I don't know If I could survive without this organisation, Selah and Micha (referring to Micha Feldman from Selah). I thought that I was the only one in the country with such a case, and I felt hopeless. But once I met Micha and he told me there were more people like myself, that I could meet and talk to - hearing others' hardships and telling about your own - it makes you feel like you are not alone in this reality. And the organisation is with me daily, it helps me and my siblings," he said.
    Bringing the new immigrants from Ethiopia has not been without setbacks, Feldmann said, noting that thousands of Ethiopians were hard pressed to prove their Jewish descent under the stringent standard set by the Orthodox rabbinate.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register