Rehabilitation Support For Refugees in Germany

On Monday 29 October, German Chancellor Angela Merkel presented IsraAID with the German Federal Government’s Integration Prize, in recognition of our work with refugees in Germany.

The German government’s highest honor for integration was given to IsraAID Germany’s Brückenbau (“Bridge Building”) project, which provides psychological support in Arabic for at-risk refugee women and victims of gender-based violence living in shelters and training and counselling for shelter staff. The program empowers women living in refugee shelters to build better self-help structures, improve interactions with shelter staff and strengthen personal and child safety.

The Brückenbau program is run in partnership with ZWST, the Welfare Board of Jews in Germany.

 At the ceremony in Berlin, Chancellor Merkel said ….

"IsraAID has been operating in Germany since 2015, when one million asylum seekers and refugees reached the country, most fleeing the brutality of the Syrian civil war and the threat of ISIS in Iraq and Syria. In addition to Brückenbau, IsraAID Germany’s programs include refugee youth leadership groups, post-trauma psychosocial support for children using expressive arts therapy, and a special program supporting survivors of the Yazidi genocide. IsraAID’s team in Germany is a multicultural mosaic of Arabic-, Hebrew-, German- and English-speaking psychologists, social workers, art therapists and educators.

IsraAID has been at the forefront of the international response to the global refugee and displacement crisis. Around the world, 68.5 million people have been forcibly displaced from their homes. 25.4 million are refugees, and more than half of them are children. This is one of the largest humanitarian disasters of our generation. IsraAID has been at the forefront of the global response, with sustainable programs to build resilience, provide education, combat gender-based violence, advance child protection, improve sanitation and offer livelihood opportunities. Since the height of the Syrian refugee crisis in 2015, IsraAID has provided medical, psychosocial and educational support to over 100,000 refugees in Greece and Germany alone."

Commenting on the award, Yotam Polizer, IsraAID Co-CEO, said:

“The global refugee crisis is among the most pressing humanitarian challenges of our generation. We pay tribute to our fantastic, multicultural and multinational team in Germany whose work is being recognized today, and to our partnership with ZWST which makes this program possible. At IsraAID, we aim to utilize our professional expertise to support the needs, rights, and integration of refugees wherever we can. Today, we have teams working with refugees and displaced people in Bangladesh, Germany, Greece, Kenya, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, South Sudan, and Uganda. In Germany, and in Greece, most of the people we reach are civilians fleeing brutal conflicts in countries like Iraq and Syria. The IsraAID Germany program being honored today – Bridge Building – is a striking testament to the power of our common humanity, as we support communities on the journey towards a better future.”

Navonel Glick, IsraAID Co-CEO, added:

“Many members of the IsraAID community are still reeling after the horrifying attack at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh this weekend. The values of integration and tolerance promoted by this prize are the antithesis of violence and hate, and a powerful reminder our humanitarian mission to help those in need, regardless of religion, race, or gender.”

IsraAID Germany and our missions around the world were honored to recieve the 2018 Integration Award! Congratulations to all involved!

Thank you for your ongoing support of this work!