Children in Southern Israel have lived under rocket attack for their entire lives. You can help us teach them tools to cope with their everyday stress and make their lives more livable. If we cannot make the rockets stop falling at least we can teach them how to use the “Treasures of the Winning Couple” to help them deal with the fear. These treasures are the natural gifts of their own mind-body.
Tal, a 7 year old boy from Sderot is one of these children. His daily stress level, even when the sirens are fewer, is so much higher than most of the adults or children that we all know. Tal seems to be on edge all the time. Based on his life experiences, he just never knows when he will have to drop everything and run to a shelter. He is afraid that he might not even have enough time to reach the shelter and then he still will worry about his mother, father, sister and brother.
What if my mother is outside at a playground with my little sister and she can’t run fast enough to reach a shelter? What if we are in a public place and the shelter is too crowded? What if we are all sleeping and we don’t hear the siren and the rocket might hit our house?
These are the thoughts that jump into this little boy’s head at times and he doesn’t even know why. They are mixed with the typical 7 year old’s thoughts like what’s for lunch today? Can I play ball this afternoon or will I have too much homework? Sometimes they pop up in the middle of homework or during school. It’s just too much for young children to handle and these worries contribute to their often extreme reactions to normal everyday interactions.
When Tal’s little sister takes away the toy he is playing with, his reaction is completely disproportionate. Imagine a whole family with disproportionate worry and anger. Imagine a class of first or second graders with volatile tempers and over sensitive reactions. Tal’s school and others in areas where terror has struck arranged for Connections & Links to teach their students coping skills. The Treasures of the Winning Couple improves the lives of the young children and teachers in these schools and the children themselves told us how.
Tal shared various scenarios where he has used the treasures and how they have helped in daily life. “I got angry at my sister who had taken away a game from me. I used the “breathing” treasure and this calmed me down.” He said “when I was afraid I used the treasure called “my safe place” and it really helped me. When I am scared at night and can’t fall asleep, I do the movements and I feel safer. “
Now imagine over a dozen preschools full of youngsters in the same situation. Do you want to help them? Do you want to give them the tools to cope so that they can calm themselves?
Connections & Links has also been contracted to provide a Preschool Version of The Treasures of the Winning Couple to 13 preschools in Southern Israel. The cost to provide these 300 children, their parents and teachers with the tools to cope is more than the local municipal budgets can handle. We need your help so these children and their families can learn to cope with the stress they live with every day.
For contributions, please go to the following link- http://my.israelgives.org/en/campaign/preschool
