"Housing poverty is often invisible,” says Gabi Nachmani, director of Tenufa Bakehila, an NGO that fights back against the poor housing situation of thousands of disadvantaged families in Israel. “When a child goes to school without a coat, his teachers notice,” says Nachmani. “When a child has no lunch, the school provides. But when a child sleeps on a moldy mattress in a room with broken walls and exposed electrical outlets, when he cannot shower at night because there is no hot water – nobody sees.”
Nachmani’s organization, Tenufa Bakehila - Building Hope, is a life-renewing NGO that sees children like this every day. It has been repairing dilapidated homes for thousands of needy families across Israel for 28 years.
Gabi began his outreach as a young boy growing up in a poor Jerusalem neighborhood. Together with his brothers, he made repairs on neighbors’ homes as a chessed - an act of kindness. Today, he runs the largest home-repair nonprofit organization in Israel, directing a dedicated team of full-time professional workers.
Proper shelter is one of the three most basic human needs. While many organizations provide food and clothing to families in need, Tenufa Bakehila is the only large-scale nonprofit that provides families with a safe and respectable living environment in their place of shelter – their home. By repairing the home, they restore families’ dignity and hope for a brighter future.
As poverty-stricken children face their third school year under the strains of COVID, Nachmani is concerned about those whose homes are not a source of shelter and strength. Gabi explains how housing poverty exacerbates the typical challenges faced by children during the pandemic.
How has housing poverty affected children this past year?
Gabi: COVID shifted everyone’s focus towards the home, and still, the issue of housing poverty went unseen. People talk about the challenges for children in low-income families: loss of school lunches, lack of Internet service and computers. No one talks about the excruciating experience of being forced to “shelter at home” when your home can’t really be considered a shelter.
What does that look like? A home that isn’t a shelter?
Gabi: We repaired the home of a single parent where the kitchen sink was severely cracked, the faucet sprayed water in every direction, the cabinets were rotted out. Imagine trying to prepare a meal for your children in a kitchen like that.
We worked in another home where a single mother and her teenage children had no bathroom door. When the place they call home is unsafe and undignified, a family suffers not only discomfort but also terrible shame.
We have refurbished homes with extreme smoke and fire damage where the interior walls, the electrical and plumbing systems all needed replacing.
Watch Tenufa’s YouTube channel to see the reaction of an elated 11-year-old boy, finally able to take a hot shower, after four years of washing himself with cold water flowing from a small tube in the wall. Tenufa Bakehila’s workmen refurbished the entire bathroom in his home where he lives with his grandmother. https://youtu.be/Y0ONs-6L3MY
What is your call to action? What can people like me do to help?
Gabi: We are aiming to reach 500 low-income families this year. Tenufa needs your help to double the number of single-parent families from 60 to 120 deserving families – that is hundreds of children whose homes and lives will be renewed.
Tenufa Bakehila needs support from people like you who understand how one urgent home repair can improve the trajectory of a child’s life.
A decent home gives children an anchor. A respectable living environment empowers a child to interact socially with self-respect and dignity, to show up with greater confidence to succeed in school and in life. By supporting Tenufa Bakehila, you can help us wipe out the worst cases of housing poverty in Israel.
Tenufa Bakehila is spreading the word about the importance of shelter – of decent housing for children. As families gear up for the new school year, we are determined to empower families who suffer the demoralizing effects of housing poverty – to empower them to believe in themselves and to strive for success.
Together, we can ensure that no child remains invisible – that every child has a safe and dignified place to eat, to shower, and to lay their head down at night.
Check us out and donate at Tenufa and on Facebook.
This article was written in cooperation with Tenufa Bakehila