Efforts to Deal with Problems of Children from Ethiopia Who Reached Israel Without Their Parents

A team of experts from the aliya and youth departments in the Jewish Agency have joined forces to deal with the problems of children from Ethiopia who have recently reached Israel without their parents.

Jewish Agency chairman Leon Dulzin said the number of these children is steadily rising and their problems require special attention beyond the regular confines of the youth aliya department.

There have been media reports here of orientation difficulties these children experience in youth aliya boarding schools. In some cases the Israeli children who are pupils in these schools — many of them from disadvantaged families — have reacted with indifference or even hostility to the young Ethiopian newcomers.

Uri Gordan, chairman of youth aliya, said the problem must be tackled primarily with the active help and involvement of Ethiopian adult immigrants who have successfully become acclimatized to life in Israel over a long period of time.