Tel-Hai Magazine 2023-2024

Students at the forefront of war relief

Omri and Ofek successfully launched a meaningful initiative called the “Shalev” project, for which they were recently honored by the college. This social en deavor involved creating a database of therapists from all over the country who performed emergency interventions at no cost to the general population. At its

the survivor had experienced. As a re sult, Omri, though not yet a certified therapist, conducted several intervention sessions with the survivor under the guidance of one of his lecturers from the Stress, Trauma and Resilience track, and discovered he could successfully apply the tools he had acquired during his

forced to evacuate from the North. While the remote-learning experience of the past year isn’t unfamiliar after the COVID pandemic, it caused me to channel my energy into taking action and showing initiative”. With this moti vation, Ofek teamed up with Omri to launch the “Shalev” project. “I feel for

peak, the project engaged approximately 60 experi enced therapists from di verse mental health disci plines. These professionals volunteered their time to provide short-term, indi vidualized interventions for people experiencing acute distress. Omri and Ofek also creat ed a pool of students from all over the country who were responsible for re ceiving initial referrals, screening suitable cases for intervention, and re ferring them to appropri ate professionals from the database. Referrals that were not suitable for the interventions offered in the project were directed to more compatible com munity organizations.

tunate to have participated in such a project. The professional lecturers from the college who guided us, including Michal Klein and Dr. Maya Peled Avra ham (head of the Trauma and Resilience cluster), mentored and believed in me. I feel they didn’t just avoid clipping my wings, rather, thanks to them, I discov ered I could fly,” says Ofek. Omri adds, “Looking back, I feel proud and privileged to have led a project that inspired such extensive volunteer engagement. I stepped into the unknown, and something meaningful emerged. It was touching to see the number of people who came to our aid. I discovered that collective creation and action during a chaotic reality strengthens, protects the psyche, and generates a sense of capability to cope with the

Omri Yeruham and Ofek Dana

Third-Year Students, Department of Social Work

studies. It was evident that these inter ventions had a crucial impact on im proving the survivor’s condition. “That’s where the idea was born,” Omri ex plains. “I realized that if I could help in such a significant way, then surely more experienced therapists, using tools tai lored for treating acute trauma, could assist with the overwhelming number of people in need of this type of interven tion.” Ofek Dana (26), was evacuated from Beit Hillel and currently lives in Tivon. “I chose to study at Tel-Hai College be cause life in the north intrigued me, and I was also attracted by the high academ ic level of the Social Work Department, and the student experience at the col lege. I’m so happy with my choice; I re ally connected with the department’s lecturers who were very accessible, and the atmosphere was family-like. I’m still experiencing a sense of loss after being

situation.” In this project, Omri and Ofek applied the intervention principles learned throughout their Social Work degree program. They demonstrated initiative, creativity, curiosity, commitment, and compassion, serving as exemplary mod els of the diverse civic action that emerged spontaneously during the ini tial period of the Iron Swords War.

As part of the project, initial therapeutic support was provided to approximately 80 individuals from the community. Omri and Ofek invested countless hours over many weeks managing the network, which included maintaining the volun teer group, organizing professional train ing for therapists, and coordinating on going guidance sessions led by department lecturers. They closely mon itored each case from initial contact through the completion of interventions. Omri Yeruham (30), evacuated from Kibbutz Ha Goshrim, currently resides in Karkur. At the outbreak of the Iron Swords War, his brother’s partner, an al ternative therapist, shared the experi ence of meeting a survivor from the Nova music festival and feeling ill equipped to deal with the severe trauma

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