Posted on 09/26/2012 11:09:32 PM PDT by Love for Israel
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL. The Love for Israel Relief Fund has been accepted as a civil society with the United Nations’ Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNESA). Not only is this an acknowledgement of their advocacy on behalf of Israeli orphans and at-risk children, but allows them to be more active and more effective on the international stage.
The Love for Israel Relief Fund was founded in 2006 when the chairman of the Knesset Social Welfare Lobby requested help in addressing Israel’s youth crisis. Since that time the Love for Israel Relief Fund has cooperated with various governmental and non-governmental bodies both domestically and internationally to address the youth crisis and try to avert a social welfare disaster where needy Israeli children are the most vulnerable population. The Love for Israel Relief Fund posts videos and monthly updates online in English as well as a website in Hebrew.
Israel is a member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The OECD provides a litmus test of a country’s social welfare performance for the United Nations, the Israeli Knesset and for private organizations including the Love for Israel Relief Fund. The Jerusalem Post announced on May 3, 2011 that Israel’s child poverty ranked the highest in the OECD. "This troubling data was a real wake-up call for us," says Richard Weisskopf, founder and chairman.
"The Love for Israel Relief Fund expects Israel’s child welfare system to rank #1 in OECD – nothing less will do for us. Call us biased, but we believe Israeli families are the best in the world and our OECD child welfare track record must reflect that."
Since May 2011, the Love for Israel Relief Fund has carefully sifted through the OECD data as well as data from several states within the United States. Their goal was to identify the secret to the successes of the highest ranking countries within the OECD and the highest-ranking states within the United States and suggest adapting these successes to Israeli society.
"As is often the case, the solution was surprisingly simple," says Weisskopf. Every welfare system that took concrete steps to ensure children the right to “most natural and least restrictive environment” also performed superior to welfare systems that used vague euphemisms such as “the child’s best interest” which can be easily manipulated distorted into ways that actually harm children. Related, welfare systems which emphasized accountability and transparency on their part performed superior to those that were cloaked in secrecy where clients’ rights were vague.
Weisskopf says their proposal to reform the Israeli child welfare system is not only in the children’s best interest, but will save taxpayers and donors up to 90% during these economic hard times. The Love for Israel Relief Fund’s acceptance into the UNESA system indicates the value of their research efforts on the international scene.
This month of Tishrei on the Jewish calendar is a time of in-depth soul-searching. The Love for Israel Relief Fund hopes Israel's decision-makers will take to heart the need to reform Israel’s child welfare system this year. Weisskopf states, "May Israel rank #1 in the OECD next year – it is in our children’s best interest!"
Must have cost many a raghead gonad to receded.
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