The UK delegation also witnessed the work of its open house in Sderot, providing services such as counselling, mindfulness and legal support to all ages. They also went to the Adi Centre for girls at risk housed in the bustling community centre in Beersheva, as well as the Nahalal Youth Village in northern Israel.
At the latter, the visitors said they had been struck by the attitude of the boarders from the diaspora. “Their commitment to Israel was incredible,” Fisher said. “They could have gone home – their parents begged them to. Some did for a few days but couldn’t wait to come back.”
A particularly affecting encounter during their programme was with Ezra, who is not a WIZO client but the winner of a song competition which was run by its vocational school in Beit Hakerem, Jerusalem, which offers a music production qualification.
“Ezra was part of a unit that had to transport over 1,000 bodies for identification on October 7,” Miller said. “He ended up with horrendous PTSD and wrote a very emotional song as a form of therapy. The song was produced by students at the school. He performed it for us and said how doing it had made a great difference to his life.”
Almost everyone the delegation met had a connection to either a victim of the Hamas attacks, a hostage, or an IDF soldier killed in action (17 WIZO school graduates are among the fatalities from October 7 and beyond).
Trauma counselling is an ever-more crucial element of WIZO’s support, with one mother confiding to the UK group that her daughter was so scared by the war that she would hide under her bed.
Miller reported that 1,507 professionals had been trained “to treat personal and collective trauma in the family unit. They have also gone into businesses to train non-WIZO professionals to spot and treat trauma in the workplace. Trauma is seeping into people at every stage of life. No one escapes.”
The charity’s hotline for men with anger issues had been expanded “to cater to not only violent men but to support those who come back from serving in the reserves with their emotions and sensitivity heightened after what they’ve seen in Gaza. They are helped to reintegrate into society – in the home, as a parent and in the workplace.”
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Fisher noted that WIZO was facing the daunting challenge of meeting the ongoing needs of its pre-October 7 beneficiaries – “we must not neglect them” – plus the needs of many more now requiring its services. “This trauma is not going away. We need to ensure therapies and programmes are in place to address the current needs of a nation in pain and be prepared for the intergenerational trauma that will follow, long after the war is over."
She added: “You come back, but you’ve left your heart there. We felt such solidarity, having witnessed the extraordinary commitment and passion of the people who work within WIZO projects and facilities.”
The UK group’s visit was part of the global organisation’s Meeting of Representatives, the first in-person conference for international delegates since the Hamas attacks.
As part of the “mother federation”, a UK representative traditionally delivers the closing remarks.
Addressing delegates, interim chair Danielle Shane said there had been countless moving moments during the week, not least the freeing of hostages.
The group’s itinerary had also included a meeting with Dani Miran, the father of one of the remaining hostages, Omri Miran, and a visit to the site of the Nova music festival, where so many young people had been killed or taken captive.
Shane concluded that delegates from the 20 federations were returning to their countries with “determination, greater awareness of the increased needs and optimism for a better and brighter future”.
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