Institutions and abuse - but the funding goes on

Image Source: United Nations

We have learned of yet another instance of abuse against a person with disabilities living in an institution. Once again, it has received no media coverage and laconic police attention. 

The victim's mother reported to the police that upon visiting her son the day after the alleged attack, he had a broken elbow, blue marks, and hemorrhaging on his face and in his eye. The employee "simply beat him up with blows".  

It is truly incomprehensible that Israel remains stuck in its backward attitudes toward institutionalization. Doling out mass cash gifts, for instance, to institutions as it just did several weeks ago. And it did so despite the outcry of Bizchut, the Israeli organization dedicated to defending the human rights of people with disabilities.

In its end-of-year report, Bizchut summarized [see my unofficial translation into English that follows] that now infamous cabinet meeting which authorized the handover of millions of shekels to ADI Negev, the large, closed and isolated institution founded and headed by Major General (Res.) Doron Almog - the darling of Israel's elite and powerful. 

No to Funding for Institutions!

Our first initiative relates to Adi Negev, an institution in the Negev where 150 people with disabilities reside.

A month ago we learned that in a closed  meeting the government will decide whether  or not to allot millions of shekels to its development. 

We do not have and never have had anything specific against Adi Negev, only against the very idea of institutions. 

When people with disabilities live, work and receive services in one place which is designated for them alone - they are isolated/cut off  from the community outside, which deepens their separation from the society. This harms equality. This harms their quality of life. In such a place, they have no control over the most basic decisions in life. 

The State of Israel understood this as well when in 2012 it ratified the international Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which, according to its official interpretation by the United Nations, orders the closure of all institutions.

We Received Word of the Government Meeting only 24 Hours Beforehand and We Understood We Had to Act Immediately

In no time (from one day to the next) we embarked on a campaign which called on ministers to oppose reaching a decision without first holding a communal, transparent, open debate, with the participation of people with disabilities in line with the principle of "Nothing about us without us", which views people with disabilities as an inseparable part of the decision making process. 

We said that it cannot be that the State will allocate millions of shekels to a policy that affects people with disabilities - without hearing them and their representative organizations. We also said that in light of the Convention and in light of the demand that arises on the ground - from people with disabilities and from their families - it is impossible to allocate millions of shekels to institutions. The budget must be allocated toward the development of responses within the community.

700 emails calling for in community living were sent

True, the government ultimately decided to approve the budget increase of several millions of shekels to expand ADI Negev. But we are not discouraged. We will continue to fight with all our strength to advance the right of every person to live within the community. 

One of our goals this year is to anchor in legislation the right to autonomous life in the community with personal aid. 

We will be sharing further details soon.

I'm glad that Bizchut is not discouraged. 

But as I wrote in an earlier post [Actually, zero steps forward, January 3, 2022], the failure of our protests to prevent that cash gift of millions of shekels to ADI Negev, truly demoralized me.  

Is Aleh unstoppable? Let's hope not.

Aleh Jerusalem via Google Maps

A dear friend of mine is on the Aleh donors' mailing list (a fluke - she has never given them a cent).

She shared with me a recent e-mailer urging the Aleh donor base to dig deep into their wallets to grant the children "an unforgettable summer, filled with fun, laughter, and joy!"

The PR piece boasts that "they will be unstoppable". It never clarifies who that "they" is: the children, or the "dedicated staff and volunteers". But, of course, obfuscation is the name of the Aleh PR game.

So this PR piece convinces donors that their cash keeps Aleh afloat and will send 120 children to camp. 

Aleh's 2017 annual report [online here] tells a different story. There we learn that Aleh derived about 82% of its income from government sources - mainly the Ministries of Health (via the health funds or kupot), of Welfare and of Education.

Source: "Aleh 2018 End of Year Report" (Feb 19, 2019)

Bottom line: It's mostly Israeli taxpayers who are funding Aleh, whether we choose to or not. On their own figures, income from donations amounted to slightly less than 11% of total income.

But its duplicity is not the main reason I sincerely hope that Aleh is ultimately "stoppable". 

Below are five photographs of a friend's daughter who attended Aleh Gedera's school as well as its institution's afternoon program. On several occasions when my friend collected her child, she found her to be in a less than desirable state.

 Only on one of those did Aleh staff phone to forewarn her of her child's injuries.

The first and last horror shots were from the school; the others are from the afternoon program (the מעון) at the institution. The mother gave me permission to post these images.

Any institution that either inflicts such shocking wounds - or allows them to be inflicted by another child - must not be left "unstoppable". 

Help stop the sub-standard care of Aleh so that the children locked up there can return to the families and the community where they deserve to live.