Unemployed despite themselves

By Harav Yossef Tzvi Rimon

Don't make the people of Gush Kattif into needy persons. Help them return to the work market.

Since Tishaa Be'av I have been working endlessly in trying to help the people of Gush Kattif. I feel it a great privilege to be in the company of these amazing people, these spiritual people, who despite the terrific hardships that they have gone through, their spirits are high. The difficulties of the people of Gush Kattif are overwhelming, but we must be extremely cautious not to turn them into needy people, G-d forbid. Lately there have articles telling of the people of Gush Kattif who are starving for food, and asking that people contribute charity for them. These articles are incorrect, and they hurt the people of Gush Kattif. It is true that many of them have real economic problems, but we are not talking about, heaven forbid, starvation! There may be a few solitary cases of people with severe problems, including a lack of food, but these are rare indeed, and these are people who had similar problems before the expulsion.

The people of Gush Kattif are, Baruch Hashem, independent people,  who despite the great difficulties that they went though are running their lives in an honorable fashion. Do they have problems? Of course! Approximately 80% of them are jobless, and have not been able, to date to find positions in the job market. Many of the possessions that were packed in containers were damaged! This and more cause them economic and personal difficulty.  But that requires a different type of assistance. What is needed is assistance in organizing activities for the youth, help in repairing the caravans, help in terms of heating , and other assistance related to the temporary dwellings, help in starting up new business (of course all these types of ventures need financial assistance).

There is a solution:

The primary assistance that is needed today is finding them jobs., Here are some of the statistics about the job situation of those expelled from Gush Kattif:

* More than 2,000 of those expelled are jobless ( i.e. 80% unemployed)

* Even those people who signed with the disengagement authority several months before the expulsion find themselves in the same situation

* The lack of jobs affects the people adversely, economically, psychologically and in terms of family unity

The people of Gush Kattif are excellent workers, and until a few months ago were successful at their jobs

Several months ago, because of these difficulties, we created an organization called "taasukatif"  (jobs for people from Gush Kattif) , this is a totally voluntary organization whose goal is to get the people of Gush Kattif back into the job market.

We work in three main areas:

Firstly – helping them find jobs

Secondly – sending people to job retraining courses

Thirdly – offering assistance in setting up new places of work

At present we are in contact with approximately one thousand of those who were expelled. They filled out questionnaires and have all been processed into our computer program. We have a sophisticated internet set which is being administered by Netta Shapira – it's address is:

 www.jobkatif.org.il

This site contains hundreds of job offers and is updated daily. We are in immediate need of job offers in the southern part of the country. We ask everyone who reads this article to speak to friends and relatives and find out if they know of any job openings in that area (especially the area of Ashkelon, Ashdod, Nitzan and Shaffir). As soon as we check out the offers we will enter the information on the site.

Economic and psychological existence

There are today approximately 100 volunteers, and we are trying to recruit another 2000. These volunteers attend an evening of training by professional people who work in the area of employment, and after that each volunteer gets the names of five people from Gush Kattif with whom he is to communicate, to assist them in writing curriculum vitae and to help them in the active search for a job. If there are any communities around the country that could help set up groups of 10-15 volunteers, we will send a professional to train them to aid in this search for employment. This is an area in which volunteers are desperately needed.

In addition, we are searching for people who can assist in connecting the people to the jobs, as well as those who can help in the search for job openings.

As of now more than a hundred people have been successfully placed in jobs. Thanks to the jobkattif.net, some have been placed in jobs similar to those that they worked at previously; others had job retraining as per their request.

With G-d's help we have succeed in opening 10 new small businesses in the area of Nitzan, Yad Binyamin, and other places around the county. Until now every person who approached us re opening a small business was aided in doing so. We are trying to direct those who worked in small businesses to explore various possibilities, and once the person comes to us with a serious plan, we try and assist . In addition we have significantly assisted in the creation of two larger business ventures. Several hundreds of thousands of shekallim have been spent on these various ventures, but our goal is getting people back on their feet, back to independence, and the best way to do this is by helping them become reemployed.

Anyone from Gush Kattif who is interested in getting help in reemployment, and anyone interested in volunteering, is invited to sign up at the site:

www.jobkatif.org.il

or call the offices of Taasukattif at 02541529

Such volunteering involves no little investment of time and effort, but the people of Gush Kattif are people who know how to work hard, such as they did until recently, today they are in difficulty because of the lack of employment. Those people who we were able to return to the job market have returned to life.

We are not talking here about just economic existence of a person, but of getting a family back on its legs. This is a national goal which should be shouldered by all citizens of the country.