The Education Ministry is preparing to absorb 2,000 students who are expected to make aliyah from Ukraine in the coming days.
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Under Education Ministry Yifat Shasha-Biton's orders, ministry teams are working on a program for the students and parents from the moment they arrive in Israel until they have been absorbed in educational institutions and by the community. The plan will take into account all aspects of assimilation, including caring for their emotional, social, and therapeutic needs.
In the first stage of the process, when the new immigrants stay at hotels and youth hostels, the ministry will organize activities like organized trips to heritage sites across the country while Ukrainian-speaking therapists and counselors will provide emotional support.
In the second stage, when the new immigrants prepare to move to their permanent places of residence, the ministry will enroll them in schools and open intensive Hebrew-study classes for around 3,000 new immigrants as well assign educators to assist students and their parents in the process.
Einav Luke of the Education Ministry's Psychological Counseling Service said, "We are locating professional manpower that speaks the language and works with children and parents. We believe the children who arrive will be in shock and distress due to the situation. Some of them lost most of what they had."
She emphasized, "Aliyah, immigration are considered complicated life events that demand many coping resources. That is why in the initial stage, they must be embraced and given warmth and routine."
Meanwhile, some 90 children from a Jewish orphanage in the Ukrainian city of Zhitomir were among those who landed in Israel on flights from Poland and Moldova on Sunday. The children are expected to stay at the Jewish National Fund's Ness Harim Field and Forest Center until some of them make their return to Ukraine or are adopted in Israel in what is known to be a lengthy process. Ahead of their arrival, the center was the recipient of donations of food, toys, candy, and other equipment from the public.
The Welfare Ministry has hired 25 Russian-speaking social workers to accompany the children during the difficult process and provide them with the support necessary.
The children in question, the youngest of whom is just two years old, number in the dozens. Two of them have special needs, and just a quarter of them speak Hebrew. Some of the children were at the orphanage not because they had lost their balance but due to abuse or extreme poverty. For this reason, the children cannot be adopted without their parent's approval and without receiving information about them from authorities in Ukraine in advance.
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