Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the education system in Israel is unable to function as per the norm. The citizens of the country continue to find themselves moving in and out of lockdown. Thus, some organizations have come together to offer their support for Israeli parents in these trying times.
The Municipality in Jerusalem has offered to provide a series of Zoom lectures for free on multiple topics relevant to parenting and its struggles. On the other hand, there is another organization by the name of Shalem Fund, which helps people with special needs. They too have decided to hold free Zoom meetings. Through these, they aim to teach parents various methods on how to deal with disabled children when they are being challenged.
The Shalem Fund is also going to pay special attention to the total well-being of children with disabilities. Therefore, they will offer free Zoom sessions, which will focus on combining emotional and mental tools with physical activity tools. These tools will ensure that parents are well-equipped to face and handle disabled children and their challenging behaviors while they are stuck at home, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In addition, parents will also have the opportunity to discuss and share the challenges that they face with disabled family members on a daily basis. Professional staff will be available to help suggest possible solutions to dealing with such problems.
Funded by the Shalem Fund, the number of Zoom sessions in total will be 12. These meetings will be held in the time span of a month.
The CEO of Shalem Fund, Riba Moskol, also addressed the public regarding this latest project of theirs. She said that the organization wanted to ensure that there was some form of help being offered to the families of the people with disabilities. Coronavirus pandemic being a challenging time, she believes that the extra support is vital.
On the other hand, Jerusalem’s Municipality has decided to host a series of a total of 18 lectures, which will be offered from November 8th to November 12th. These lectures titled ‘parenting in the living room’, will be given by relevant experts. Moreover, they will help parents tackle any and all issues that they face on a daily basis. These free sessions will be aired at 8:30pm every day. So far, more than 1,200 parents have signed up to be a part of these lectures.
Topics to be covered in these 18 lectures will include learning and playing for children, specifically those who have sleep disorders, attention deficit orders, and more. From infants to toddlers, these lectures will cover a wide age range.
The municipality announced these lectures and talked about their motivation behind this particular project. It said that new parents have had to experience parenthood right alongside the rising spread of the Covid-19 virus. Thus, they have also had to deal with an uncertain situation and lockdown regulations. The spokesperson for the municipality went on to say that the project aims to make life easier for parents residing in Jerusalem.