Reut Sderot Association

: (1) Two daycare centers for children aged 3 months to three years, and seven kindergartens for children aged three to six. These facilities emphasize the children's emotional, intellectual and physical development and offer a supervised curriculum of therapies and services by a professional and experienced staff. (2) four after-school therapeutic centers which provide comprehensive services to underprivileged children from the Sderot area in first through seventh grades, five days a week, between 1pm and 7pm, ten months a year. The centers also provide full day intersession activities for the weeks when school is closed. The staff members help children gain the social and educational tools necessary to grow and learn, while remaining comfortable and cared for in a secure environment. The staff of the centers offers homework assistance, nutritious meals and snacks, group and individual activities and sports, quiet focused individual attention in a consistently supportive venue. (3) Stricken neighborhoods: Many of Reut-Sderot young families have settled in Sderot specifically to live in underprivileged neighborhoods. These new families endeavor to introduce concepts of community involvement and civic responsibility to longtime local populations. Projects are geared towards neighborhood renewal, improved educational institutions, services to local senior citizens, and various cultural activities. Two successful examples are the "Nave Eshkol" and the "Nir Am" neighborhoods of Sderot, each of which absorbed a core group of new families who strive – together with the local community of residents -- to eradicate unemployment, violence, petty and serious crime, substance abuse, vandalism and other symptoms of economic and cultural poverty.