Pamela Azaria
International Resources Director
The brand-new Chimes Israel’s therapeutic adult nursing day care center in the Arab village of Kfar Kassem, Israel opened its doors to service recipients on September 1. The Chimes Center serves the residents of Kfar Kassem and neighboring Arab communities in Israel including Kfar Bara, Jaljulia, Qalansuwa and Tira. It was designed to provide closely supervised, high-quality advanced rehabilitative therapeutic services to forty adults living with moderate to severe intellectual and developmental disabilities such as fragile X syndrome, Rett syndrome, cerebral palsy and various X syndromes such as Down syndrome, Angelman syndrome and autistic spectrum disorders.
Especially, now, during times unrest, it is more important than ever to focus on projects for unity between Arabs and Jews. Establishing a Chimes Center here is consistent with one of the fundamental tenets of Chimes Israel’s mission: to provide services for all sectors of the population, irrespective of ethnicity, religion, politics, nationality, age, or gender. For years the families of adults with disabilities in Kfar Kassem, have been promised help but the municipality has not been able to provide a suitable physical facility.
“Serving everyone that needs our help is part of our values. We see no difference between Arabs and Jews with disabilities. They are all our clients,” said Jorge Zimmermann, CEO of Chimes Israel. “Kfar Kassem is in the region we support, and it is our mission to help people here achieve a better quality of life.”
The Center has been specifically constructed for people who require extremely close supervision and highly dedicated care including assistance with feeding, incontinence, and mobility. There are beneficiaries who need one-on-one attention due to challenging behavior, uncontrolled epileptic seizures, severe social difficulties, and very low cognition levels. Some of have complex nursing requirements such as specialized hospital beds with mattresses that prevent bedsores; doctor and nutritionist-advised diets to regulate food textures; and individually customized behavioral programs.
This new and advanced facility will be under the supervision of Israel’s Ministry of Welfare and Kfar Kassem Municipality. Directed by Neamat Esa, a native of Kfar Kassem who has extensive institutional leadership experience as well a master’s degree in educational administration and leadership from Tel Aviv University.
The Kfar Kassem Municipality chose Chimes Israel for this undertaking because of our proven success of a similar project in the Arab-Israeli village of Taibe. The project is still heavily underfunded yet was made possible through the support of the Municipality of Kfar Kassem, the Shalem Fund and the National Insurance Institute of Israel. Private funding includes the Symphasis Foundation of Zurich and Phillip Morris International. If you would like more information or contribute to the building or equipment fund for the Kfar Kassem project, please click here
