“You can rebuild a ruined home, but you can’t piece together the broken soul of a child.”

In the early hours of Shabbat, October 7th, and Simchat Torah, Hamas shot thousands of rockets into Southern and Central Israel. While rocket fire was still ongoing, Hamas forces invaded Israel, targeting multiple towns, villages and cities. Hundreds, mostly civilians, are dead, and thousands injured. Many are still being held hostage in the Gaza Strip. 

ELEM, which has always provided critical mental health support in emergency situations, has expanded its online services and is providing as much support as possible to our youth to try and mitigate trauma. Some youths have been evacuated, and some have seen their families die right in front of them.

The number of youths reaching out for help has tripled, while we also experience a shortage of manpower since many of our staff members have been called to duty.

Your support at this time will help us launch more pop-up locations for evacuated youth both from the Gaza envelope and northern Israel, close the gap created by missing government funds that will be surely diverted towards the war, and many other immediate needs.

We are facing several acute needs.

1. Our shelters for teens facing homelessness or the cycle of prostitution are seeing the number of teens double. This vulnerable population cannot be left on the streets at this time. In addition, even ELEM graduates who are now living independently are returning to shelters rather than experiencing rocket alerts alone in their apartments.
2. ELEM's online chat services have seen incoming requests triple and quadruple as teens from all over Israel suffer anxiety and depression under the current unimaginable stress. For teenagers in distress, their devices are their first port of call. ELEM is bolstering teams and expanding access to our chats and digital services to support them where they need us most.
3. ELEM supports at-risk young mothers, including a hub in southern Israel. These already-impoverished mothers are essentially housebound with their very young children, some in unsafe domestic situations. ELEM is organizing both emergency food packages and basics like diapers, which will have to be delivered to their homes.
4. Many teens and young adults have been evacuated from the south, some from their homes in infiltrated communities and some from the rave that had attracted 4,000 young revelers. ELEM will put staff on the ground at the evacuation sites for these people to provide emotional support and trauma therapy to teens and young adults.

Follow ELEM's action during the war. Visit our updates page: 

https://elem.org/elem-during-the-war/