About 17,500 asylum seekers from Eritrea and Sudan live in Israel, most having arrived more than fifteen years ago. Around 8,000 children have been born to them here. Israel has approved fewer than 0.5% of their asylum claims - 18 Eritreans and one Sudanese - against European recognition rates of roughly 90% for Eritreans. The children hold no status, and lose what limited entitlements they have at eighteen.
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Parents work long hours in cleaning and construction. Licensed daycare costs more than they earn, and public preschool takes no one under three. The gap is filled by informal nurseries in apartments and basements across the south of the city, run by untrained women, holding several thousand children between them. Elifelet reports that nineteen infants have died in them since 2010.
Elifelet was founded in 2013 by the journalist Yael Gvirtz. It works inside those nurseries rather than around them, bringing food, arranging medical care, sending volunteers, and runs after-school centres for older children. In 2016 the Defence Minister ordered soldiers to stop volunteering with the organization. Human rights advocates, school principals, and several Knesset members criticized the ban, arguing that the young children were blameless and that the soldiers served as vital positive role models.
These photographs are from a volunteer initiative organized by Yahel Israel and Repair the World, in partnership with Elifelet.
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We spent the afternoon playing water games and summer activities in a local park. After the activity, volunteers spent time learning from leaders about the local needs and efforts of Elifelet.