Participants — Members of the NGO Board (5): Ms. Keren Fishzon — Chairman of the Board; Mr. Constantine Blyuz — Board Member; Mr. Shimon (Semyon) Gabay and Ms. Irina Kesselman — Members of the Audit Committee; Ms. Zinaida Himmelbrand.

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Other Participants: Ms. Yael Carmon, Ms. Anna Golitzyna, Ms. Natalya Hmelik, Ms. Ekaterina Dmitrieva, Ms. Natalia Zalkind, Ms. Irina Ilan, Ms. Olga Steiman, Mr. Constantine Bobman, Ms. Marina Lantsburg, Ms. Irina Vaiserberg, Ms. Elena Serova, Ms. Sophia Gissin, Ms. Galina Ilitzky, Ms. Elena Novogrudsky, Dr. Irina Zack, Mr. Sasha Gelfand, Mr. Victor Zalkind, Mr. Yevgeny Dmitriev, Ms. Karina Levin, Mr. Dennis Raib, Mr. Mikhail Aleksandrov, Ms. Daria Shetfman, Mr. Emanuel Fishzon.

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Total: 33 participants.

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The meeting took place at the Shalom Meir Tower (9 Ahad Ha'am St., Tel Aviv), from 17:00 to 21:00.

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Agenda:

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Approval of the financial report;

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Approval of the Chairman’s report;

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Admittance of four new NGO members

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Presentation and discussion of new and existing projects.

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Report of the Chairman

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1. The Chairman congratulates the volunteers who came to the meeting and those who could not come but have contributed to their communities all over Israel. The number of the MM volunteers increased to about 250.

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2. Throughout the year, the NGO continued to assist those who contacted it on a variety of issues related to the areas of responsibility of the National Insurance Institute (Bituah Leumi), the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Aliya and Absorption, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of the Interior, the municipal authorities and more. The NGO’s representatives accompanied its clients to meetings at various governmental institutions and assisted them in enjoying their legal rights. This year, too, the organization received hundreds of requests from citizens who were in distress, without the NGO’s advertising or public relations campaigns.

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3. Like in previous years, in 2017, the NGO’s representatives handled a considerable number of cases concerning the withdrawal of children from their families and achieved impressive results.

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4. The educational project “Russian as Foreign Language” has taken shape and become an important tool for building of bridges between immigrant children and their families.

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5. The Chairman began a series of lectures  for various audiences throughout Israel. The aim is to give people the necessary information on their social rights, integration of children into the education system, and other issues. The first lectures were held in the cities of Jerusalem and Bat Yam, where the absorption departments cooperate with the «Magen Mishpacha» on a regular basis.

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6. The NGO’s representatives participated in in the meetings of several Knesset committees — both on immigrant rights (such as the issue of the “fourth generation” (the great-grandchildren of male Jews who are not entitled to immigration under the Law of Return) and on general issues such as the rights of socially vulnerable groups of population.

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7. As we live in the digital age, the NGO is moving towards the more advanced technologies in creation of its new website www.magenmishpacha.org.il and plans to use the CRM system for processing calls to our Hotline “Right to Defense”.

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8. The Chairman thanked everyone before offering to move to other topics of the agenda.

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Item 1. Approval of the financial report by members of the NGO.

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Ms. Keren Fishzon and Mr. Constantine Blyuz presented the financial report for 2017. Members of the audit committee Mr. Gabay and Ms. Kesselman expressed their position on the report. Ms. Fishzon announced that the organization has met both of its 2017 goals: revenues of NIS 30,000 and obtaining a certificate of proper management approval.

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Resolution: The financial report for 2017 was approved unanimously by the five members of the NGO’s management (Ms. Fishzon, Ms. Kesselman, Ms. Himmelbrand, Mr. Gabay, Mr. Blyuz).

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Item 2. Approval of the Chairman’s report by the NGO members.

 

Ms. Keren Fishzon and Mr. Constantine Blyuz presented the verbal report for 2017, members of the audit committee Mr. Gabay and Ms. Kesselman expressed their position on the report.

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Resolution: The verbal report for 2017 was approved unanimously by the five members of the NGO management (Ms. Fishzon, Ms. Kesselman, Ms. Himmelbrand, Mr. Gabay, Mr. Blyuz).

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Item 3. Admittance of new NGO members.

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The NGO Chairman, Ms. Keren Fishzon, proposed to admit Ms. Natalya Hmelik, Ms. Yael Carmon, Ms. Anna Golitzyna and Ms. Ekaterina Dmitrieva as new members of the organization.

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Ms. Natalya Hmelik is the editor-in-chief of the NGO’s website. She is an expert on public relations and manages a number of projects promoting Israel's image in the world. In the Soviet times she decided not to immigrate to Israel and engaged in public activity among Jewish communities. She is a graduate of the Lomonosov Moscow University’ School of Journalism and for years had been an investigative reporter for some of Russia's best media.

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Ms. Anna Golitzyna is the director of the integration project the aim of which is to help children from the former Soviet Union to find their place among Israeli peers including classmates. She has academic degrees in economics and psychology, and for a decade and a half has worked for financial companies. She has also done personal and business trainings. Ms. Golitzyna Immigrated to Israel two years ago and works for a trading company.

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Ms. Ekaterina Dmitrieva is the NGO spokeswoman appointed instead of Ms. Olga Bakushinskaya who earlier resigned from the position. After graduating from the Odessa University (Ukraine) as an energy engineer, she worked in different countries. She also has working experience in public relations, copywriting, social networking and management.

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Ms. Yael Carmon manages important projects on cooperation between the NGO and its partners arranging communication between them. She has extensive experience in journalism (graduated from Lomonosov Moscow State University) and works for the NGO’s website. Before coming to Israel, she worked as a manager of large-scale campaigns in the third sector, among other things, raising funds for orphaned children in Russia; she also worked as a public relations officer for Russia’s first private electricity company.

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Resolution: The General Meeting unanimously approved the admittance of Ms. Natalya Hmelik, Ms. Yael Carmon, Ms. Anna Golitzyna and Ms. Ekaterina Dmitrieva as members of the NGO.

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Members of the NGO will not receive payment for their work.

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Item 4. Presentation and discussion of new and existing projects

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1. Ms. Irina Ilan presented a program of assistance in the integration of children while reducing their trauma during their first months in Israel.

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2. Ms. Elena Serova presented a project on the integration of immigrant children through the creation of a video-blogging platform that would directly engage them in creative activities and, on the other hand, give an opportunity to work together establishing a network.

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3. Ms. Olga Shteiman covered the negative addictions of various kinds (she has specialized in that field for decades). She noted that immigrant children are in a high-risk group and often need active treatment, rather than the measures of prevention like their Israeli peers. 

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4. Ms. Irina Vaiserberg presented a project of adaptation immigrant children who received harsh and sometimes violent treatment at Israeli schools through English-speaking club where they would meet their Hebrew-speaking peers. The project that has a solid professional foundation and is expected to be very successful. The NGO “Magen Mishpacha” called Ms. Vaiserberg the Person of the Year.

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5. Dr. Irina Zack, a psychologist for the Shevach Mofet School, spoke of the necessity to establish a psychological assistance center for immigrant children. She presented her own statistics on teachers’ attitude to immigrant kids and evaluated the efficiency of various approaches.

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6. Dr. Marina Lanzburg presented a wide project of adaptation of the immigrant students and showed the statistics regarding the poor psychological conditions of kids from the last wave of immigration.

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7.  Ms. Daria Shetfman (18) and Mr. Denis Raib (18) the youngest participants in the meeting, told about the problem of acclimatization of young immigrants and suggested creating clubs for young them. Members of the meeting welcomed the idea and decided to assist the teenagers in finding of premises free, in the evenings, such schools, kindergartens and public institutions, where the members of those clubs might regularly meet.

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8. Mr. Vladimir Khakham presented the project of automatic generator of content including in mathematics as well as other subjects designed to drastically ease the teacher’s work, customize the tasks for a student and shift the accent of learning to the practice work.

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9. Mr. Constantine Bobman, Ms. Ekaterina Dmitrieva and Ms. Natalya Hmelik presented the new website of the NKO built after the previous meeting. According to the NKO members the new site is very impressive. The Russian part of the website has been already fully operational, while the content in English and Hebrew being translated and uploaded now.

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10. Mr. Konstantin Blyuz asked all the project authors and coordinators for cooperation in description of the project in the form appropriate for application for funding.

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