Sunshine After the Storm Thanks to Safety Net
August 2024
At the beginning of August 2024, 52 families (52 mothers and 100 children) were treated to a carefree three-day family vacation at the Leonardo Club Hotel in Tiberias in northern Israel. With the tensions high on the northern border with Lebanon, the trip was nearly canceled, but in the end took place to the joy and delight of the families. These families are no ordinary families. The sunshine they enjoyed came after a dark period of numerous “storms” — these families are part of WIZO’s Safety Net communities in Haifa, Hadera, and Herzliya; families who are survivors of domestic abuse and are in the midst of rebuilding their lives after having spent a prolonged amount of time living in domestic abuse shelters.
They were treated — at no expense to them — to three days in a hotel on the shores of the Kinneret with pool activities, theater shows for the kids, buffet meals, and special programming. The staff of the hotel were thrilled to welcome them and lavish them with treats and kindness. And the WIZO team that accompanied them made sure that all their needs were met and surpassed.
This family vacation, enjoyed as a community, was a “dream come true” for the participants and the Safety Net program leaders. It was a unique, worry-free experience that most of them had never known or experienced before. Mothers were able to spend quality time with their children, strengthen their bond with one another, and engage in positive family experiences that had not been part of their lives.
A healing family vacation such as this one, offers a transformative experience for mothers and children who have survived domestic abuse, providing them with a safe and nurturing environment to rebuild their lives. For many of these families, this may be their first opportunity to enjoy a family vacation, a chance to escape the stress of their daily lives and focus on creating positive memories together. The benefits are profound: mothers and children reconnect and strengthen their bonds, experience joy and relaxation, and begin to restore their trust in the world. This time away also allows them to engage in activities that promote self-worth and resilience, fostering a sense of normalcy and hope as they continue their journey toward healing and recovery.
WIZO’s Safety Net program, which operates in 12 locations across Israel in partnership with the WIZO Division for the Advancement of the Status of Women, is more than just a structured program for survivors of domestic violence. It’s a community consisting of a network of people (many of them WIZO Israel volunteers) and resources that address the unique and complex needs of a mother and her children who are not only forced out of their homes by an abusive partner, but are also often forced out of their hometown and community. The result is a broken and traumatized family that needs to rebuild itself from the ground up: mothers who need to rebuild their sense of self worth, confidence, sense of safety and security, but also rebuild a physical home, financial independence and social bonds. Safety Net assists with housing, furnishing, child care and placement in new settings, clothes, job training, financial literacy and more. The Safety Net team includes professional social workers and program directors from WIZO’s Status of Women division who are trained and specialize in domestic violence prevention and treatment.
To watch a short clip of the family vacation in Tiberias, click HERE.
CHW is a proud supporter of Safety Net through our S.O.S – Starting Over Safely Summer Campaign.
