Thank you, Manchester!

Greer Fay Cashman, writing in today's Jerusalem Post ["Grapevine: Largesse from Down Under", June 5, 2015], focuses some well-justified attention on the wonderful efforts, and meaningful outcome, of a year-long charity project at one of the UK's main Jewish schools.

Here's her account.

The students visit the Keren Malki Equipment Lending Unit at Yad Sarah
(minus the Yavneh Girls contingent who visited several hours earlier)

CHILDREN CAN be selfish, but they can also display an amazing generosity of spirit – as was the case with 90 Manchester youngsters who presented a check for £12,000 to the Malki Foundation in Jerusalem.

As part of their Year 9 trip to Israel, students from King David High School, the Yavneh Yeshiva High School and Yavneh Girls from Manchester, UK, visited Yad Sarah headquarters in the capital and saw how the Malki Foundation operates in a joint venture with Yad Sarah warehouses, thus enabling the management and delivery of home-care equipment to families throughout Israel.

Students Jacob Rudolph and
Omri Simon deliver their message

The Manchester project has paid for six new customized supportive chairs and four new walking devices for children with disabilities, which the Malki Foundation will lend out to families caring for a disabled child at home.

Each piece of equipment will be used by multiple families for many years, helping to make their lives easier.

“Our main aim is to empower families to look after their children at home,” explained Malki Foundation chairman Arnold Roth.

“Specialized equipment like these chairs and walking devices can be transformative for many families, who are determined to care for their special-needs children at home instead of institutionalizing them.”

The Malki Foundation was started by the Roth family, whose 15 year-old-daughter Malki was killed in the Sbarro pizza parlor bombing in Jerusalem in 2001. Arnold Roth visited Manchester last year to meet the schoolchildren and speak about Malki’s dedication to helping others during her short life; moved by the story, the youngsters spent nine months fund-raising.

From left: Moshe Cohen, Yad Sarah's managing director;
Arnold Roth, Malki Foundation honorary chair; David Rose,
Yavneh King David Bursar; Debbie Fishman, executive
director of Malki Foundation

Speaking at the presentation of the £12,000 check, Jacob Rudolph and Omri Simon from Yavneh Yeshiva High School explained how their class of 14 students raised half the sum by packing supermarket bags and organizing sponsored bike rides, quizzes and raffles.

“This project showed us what we are capable of when we are motivated to help others who can do less than we can,” they enthused.

While in Jerusalem, the students met Kiro Kolavita, a parent of a child with Cerebral palsy, who spoke about the significance of the equipment provided by the Malki Foundation.

“Many of these Manchester students are the same age Malki was when her life was tragically cut short. It is heartwarming to see how her legacy lives on in the hearts of Jewish children around the world,” noted Malki’s father.

Yad Sarah managing director Moshe Cohen thanked the children for their good works.

Inspecting the equipment: Yavneh Girls

“Your initiatives throughout the year are inspiring, and will help dozens of children with special needs for many years. I hope this project will point the way for you to live lives full of hesed [acts of lovingkindness] and tzedaka [charity] all your lives.”

Cohen then expressed his gratitude to Arnold Roth for his fruitful cooperation with Yad Sarah these past 12 years. “During these years we have had the privilege of helping over 2,800 children through the Malki Foundation.

The new equipment we will be able to purchase thanks to the contribution of these schoolchildren is good news, and will enable us to expand our service to even more children.”

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The Jewish Chronicle in London has some coverage of the visit as well: click here for "They give as good as they get" [JC, June 5, 2015].