The past few months have been a challenging time for everybody. Places of work shut down, enforced isolation, social distancing and the ever-present fear of contagion and illness.

At Kivunim, an Israeli NGO that provides vital support services designed to allow young people with disabilities lead a full, active and independent life, the last couple of months were especially challenging as the fight against the spread of Covid19 forced the staff and participants to, overnight, make drastic changes to their program. 

This post will, I hope, give you just some idea of how the pandemic affected Kivunim and what the future holds as, slowly but surely, things return to some semblance of normality.

Overnight upheaval

Just over two months ago, Kivunim, along with the rest of the country, was forced to react to the spreading Covid19 pandemic.  The immediate result was a severe cut back, even suspension, of participants’ training programs - vocational, health, leisure time, and community integration. Many of the participants who live in the Wings training apartments had to give up their independence and return to their parent’s homes. Those who stayed, faced severe restrictions on their freedom of movement, often being “stuck” inside for weeks on end.

At Kivunim, the fear was that years of work, helping the young people develop their sense of worth and independence could be lost because of the uncertain situation they found themselves in and their increased dependence on their parents and families.  As people with special needs, while at home, their parent’s naturally want to look after them, to pamper them. After months of finally starting to be independent, they found themselves back at home with parents who are not used for them being home, and who don’t expect or ask them to help out with the “chores”.  In this situation, there is a very real risk that they will lose their sense and motivation to be independent, to do their own shopping, laundry, cooking and all those other activities that we consider “normal” but that are, for many of them, a challenge.

Responding to the challenge

Kivunim’s counselors and support staff, used digital platforms like Zoom, to maintain schedules and hold remote training sessions. They encouraged participants to be active at home, to show their parents what they have learned and that they can cope, and to continue with their individual development plans.

Obviously, this is a less than ideal situation and we did witness some regressions and setbacks.  But we also witnessed growth and strengthening of participants abilities and self-esteem. We saw families realizing that their children, who perhaps for the first time in their home, helped prepare dinner, or sat helping them to make on-line purchases, fill out forms and deal with the necessities of isolation, were capable, independent people.

Flexibility and creativity were always important to Kivunim’s work. Now this is even more important as, lacking the ability to work face to face with our participants’, we have to develop new ways to achieve our goals. Essentially, we have to think outside of the box.

At Kivunim it is VERY important to continue training and motivating participants. The forced isolation of Covid19 has compelled Kivunim to go digital. Nurses have been guiding both staff and participants with health guidelines and dealing with the requirements of isolation and social distancing.  Psychiatric and emotional support is provided to help with anxiety, loneliness, and other emotional problems. More laptops have been purchased to be used by residents who remained the Wings apartments and by staff who now have to work from home. Kivunim stays in touch and supports its Wings program alumni (over 170) and the Supportive Housing program - a program for people with disabilities, some of whom are Wings graduates, already living independently but who need some assistance and guidance.

Another challenge Kivunim is facing is the recruitment and intake of the new Wings class due to open in September. As the situation improves, restrictions ease and fears dissipate, the hope is that potential participants, or their families, won’t get “cold feet” and cancel their registration.

The bottom line

Overall, participants are managing well and continuing, as much as possible, with their training. Of course, some cope better than others, but Kivunim’s staff is there to provide the support needed to get “over the hump”. Thankfully, no one has dropped out of the program and all have remained committed to the continuing in spite of the difficulties, fears, and setbacks. Recruitment is also still continuing. 

As of today, about 95% of Wings participants have returned to the Wings apartments. The return of participants to their jobs or Israeli Civil national service is gradually increasing. At Kivunim offices, classes, the Shop for Meaning and other facilities, Department of Health guidelines including wearing masks are strictly observed.

Michal Nitzany, Kivunim’s Development and Resources Manager said: “We hope we will manage to minimize any regressions and have all participants graduate from the program as planned”.

The last word

Life goes on.  Kivunim will continue with its work, its participants’ will continue to develop and grow and enjoy the independence they deserve and work so hard to achieve.

P3 ISRAEL is proud to partner with Kivunim, to be, in some small way, part of its vision, and mission.  Our hope is that in October 2020, Covid19 willing, we will be able to send a team to continue building bridges of friendship.