Adi Amos - 2023 Big Brother for Lone Soldiers

We are recruiting together We are not leaving even one lone soldier alone! When we feel alone, we usually turn to our safest place - family. There are 6500 lone soldiers who protect us in the IDF that have no family to support them during their military service. The Big Brother NGO was established by former lone soldiers themselves to change the experience of loneliness in the military service for lone soldiers. Through a big brother or sister, we can give these lone soldiers a safe place to turn to when they are navigating the feeling of “alone”. Over the past 13 years, we have developed a unique model of personal mentorship, with our 500 volunteers, all of whom all are released lone soldiers. These volunteers provide a personal example and are role models for about 1,700 soldiers before they once again become civilians. Together we provide the soldiers with, among other things, bureaucratic assistance, cultural mediation, access to information, contact with commanders, emotional support, presence at ceremonies, and most importantly a warm and loving hug when they return home. After we raised 400,000 shekels last year, we were able to increase the activity both in mentoring the soldiers and in the training processes of our released soldiers in a project call Ach Laderech. We opened a huge project for soldiers who were affected by the war in Ukraine, we created a new tradition for celebrating a Bar Mitzvah for single soldiers who have undergone conversion, and we created an Ach Gadol home for pre-draftees- the only one in Israel! We have new challenges ahead. To continue the momentum and maintain the quality of the activity, we need your help this year as well. The cost of escorting each soldier is NIS 1,200 for a year. The cost includes financing packages for soldiers to their bases and birthdays, exceptional financial assistance, financing travel and meetings with the soldiers, emotional support, and a special seminar for soldiers getting released and returning to civilian life. We invite you to join us in a social-Zionist project, through which thousands of young people find a home and a family.