Notnim

“Notnim,” the Giving Organization, was founded in 2016 by Joseph Graf, a resident of Modiin Illit, who saw the enormous need for comprehensive help for families with special needs children. There are 80,000 residents in Modiin Illit, making up some 12,000 families. The city’s population is particularly young, enjoying unprecedented growth thanks to high fertility rates and accelerated municipal development. As part of this high demographic growth there are many children with special needs, such as autism, CP, mental handicaps and more. They need the very best care that answers their unique and specific needs. To this end, we founded ‘Notnim’. Our motto is: A happy child means a peaceful family. Our vision: To help these children with special needs and their families to obtain the services and help that they rightfully deserve, enhancing their quality of life. Our goals: - To create a meaningful, fun, unique social and educational framework for Modiin Illit’s children who suffer from emotional and physical disabilities - To support for these children and their families At ‘Notnim’ we believe that when a special child is born, a family with special needs is born too. The organization was created for these special families who are struggling in so many areas of family life—emotional, social, marital, occupational. Some 77% of parents of these families are forced to quit the work force to care for their child. Fully 95% of parents report the need for financial help under the crushing weight of therapies for their children. And 90% report feelings of loneliness and anxiety, while 85% describe enormous difficulties for the siblings of these special needs children. We offer support to these families with every kind of disability, in all areas of life. From giving parents some downtime - our volunteers come and take the special needs children to the park or shopping - to seminars and important information that helps parents deal with children with special needs. We also operate a chain of therapeutic centers in conjunction with local authorities, as well as Shabbat clubs on Fridays and Saturdays. The latter is a special project run by our organization to allow the parents to have a real shabbat rest. Vacations and parent support groups are also part of the program. ‘Notnim’ by the numbers: - We are currently helping 415 families -200 parents participate in our special family programs -400 volunteers -60 host families - Our annual budget for 2022 is NIS 2 million - Our partners: Modiin Illit municipality/local authorities, businesses, foundations, local Israeli and international donors - Our goals for 2023/24: construction of a permanent home for the organization at a cost of NIS 5 million