Annual Report 2006

41
tion and Welfare Dept. refers these students to
several placement options: assisting lone cancer
patients, children who have cancer, assisting
healthy children who have a parent who has
cancer, healthy siblings of a child cancer patient
or providing the necessary assistance in various
oncology wards. The Rehabilitation and Welfare
Dept. ascertains that activity is conducted on
a regular basis, and maintains contact with
the student and additional entities, reporting
to Impact and lending a "sympathetic ear" to
any problem that may arise during activity. The
project is coordinated by the ICA social worker,
Ms. Dalia Stern.
"Impact for the Community"
Conference
October saw the "Impact for the Community"
Conference held at the Association for the
Wellbeing of Israel's Soldiers Center in Tel Aviv.
About 350 new students who joined the project
attended. Dalia Stern, ICA Project Coordinator,
delivered a special presentation about the
project and its great and noteworthy contribution
to cancer patients in Israel. Additionally, four
outstanding students were selected during
the conference for their outstanding volunteer
activity. One of these students is Naftali Eitan
who volunteered to help a 13 year old child, the
only son of a mother with cancer. The child's
father lives abroad. Due to his mother's disease,
the boy's behavior worsened, he dropped in his
scholastic achievements and began to associate
with youths who were older than he and who
had a negative influence on him. He began to
smoke cigarettes and he was suspected of using
drugs. Eitan came into the picture during this
difficult period: he forged a good relationship
with the boy, succeeded in getting close to him
and having a positive influence on him. Eitan
detached the boy from his negative environment
when he took him several times a week to his
kibbutz. He initiated a bar mitzvah celebration for
the child (his mother isn't Jewish) by collecting
donations for the event and formed strong ties
with the community and school entities attending
to the child. Thanks to the strong ties that
Eitan formed with the child, he is considered
to be an "intermediary" between the child and
the attending staff and helped the boy escape
the crisis he experienced. This unpopular boy
opened up, became socially tolerant and socially
involved with his classmates.
Maccabi Haifa team members visited
ICA supported Vacation Site which accommodated
Families of Children who
have Cancer
Maccabi Haifa football team members visited the ICA
supported vacation site which accommodated families
of children who have cancer, with child cancer patients
participating along with all their family members, siblings
Photo: Yossi Weiss
and parents, from all over the country.
All of the families were very excited
to meet the team members who
came to visit them at the vacation
site and the football players signed
autographs for everyone.