LIVING IN WAR The complex reality that exists in the south and north of the country following the various security threats, constitutes a significant difficulty and challenge for the population living there. The ongoing threat affects physical and mental health, as well as social and economic well-being.
In fact, living in a war routine, leads the population to deal daily with apprehension, social alienation, avoidance, denial and even reduction in lifestyle.
The community has a great influence on how the individual copes, and has the power to shape optimal coping ways and produce resilience in the community that can contribute in routine and emergency situations.
In order to assist the population in coping with stress and distress in an emergency, community resilience must be developed in daily life and routine. Strengthening the community, helping, and providing mutual security will promote recovery, reduce fears, ease coping, and provide a sense of belonging.
When the community safety-net is strong and cohesive during routine, feelings of security and mutual help are also expressed during emergencies.
PERSONA Roni Levy, a mother of three (8 years old, 4 years old and a newborn baby), 35 years old, married to a military man.
Originally her family is from Hadera but she moved to live with her husband and children in Otef Gaza because of the proximity to his base and the fact that his parents live there. She does not know many people there, would like to know more mothers and families in her community. Works as a graphic designer, mostly from home. In addition, her husband's parents live close by, they are very old and she feels responsible for caring for them because her husband is in the army most of the week.
Needs - Babysitter for her children, help with shopping, need for community and companionship, private lessons for the children, help for her husband's parents. Her technology knowlede is at a high level, she uses applications and consumes her information from applications and technological sources.
An ideal experience - a community that will help her with her daily tasks, including a group of mothers of similar ages who can be a source of support for her.
Pain points- has to deal with the care of the children alone, she does the shuttles in the morning, has to leave work early to take them out of school and also needs time to check the up on her husband's parents.
NEEDS
During routine:
Anxiety and post-trauma
"The problems accompany us every day too - I hear a song on the radio and suddenly I'm afraid there is an alarm. The anxiety and stress accompany every day. Once a motorcycle passed behind my house and I ran to the shelter."
"I do not think there is enough open discourse and space for young children to talk about their feelings."
Instability
"They say in the news that we are returning to the routine ... We are not returning, because this is our routine"
"You're in a situation where you do not know what will happen tomorrow, everything is very sensitive and it's not easy."
"It's hard to maintain a normal routine. Every time you go back to work / school or any other setting, everything is interrupted and you have to restart afterwards." Need for community
"I think there is a need for something communal. Buying medicines and groceries for the elderly, cleaning shelters, babysitting and dealing with children. Something needs to be improved at the community level. Mutual help. With us in Netivot, this is happening but not enough."
"After all the kibbutzim have undergone a process of privatization, a crisis has arisen around the community, because in fact there was no longer anything that would 'hold' the community, because the kibbutz model and frameworks have changed. Many kibbutzim that have been privatized have become much less communal."
"I see that older people need the community and social gatherings. And maybe people who have lived in the kibbutz all their lives need even more of this community, because that's how they grew up all their lives, as opposed to urban life."
During an emergency:
Difficulty in obtaining basic products
"There are all kinds of problems that need to be solved, such as how to prevent people from walking around the kibbutz and providing them with supplies at home, because it is impossible to get to the shelter within 15 seconds."
"In times of emergency, there is always someone 'sacrificing' himself to go out and bring basic things home, like food."
Social distance and isolation
"Stuck at home all day. Missing school. An unfair feeling"
"The kids don't go to school for whole months, the social aspect is very hurt by that. You can hardly play with friends."
"Parents need to be home and stay with the kids 24/7 and it's very difficult."
"The old people can't physically go down to the shelter, and then they have to stay home during alarms. They sit and wait for it to pass and pray that nothing will happen to them."
Financial difficulties
"In times of tension, there is suddenly no work, sometimes for whole months. We face financial difficulties." Mental difficulty, anxieties and stress
"My daughter is very, very stressed, as the alarm starts she runs to the shelter and gets under her bed, sitting there and that's it, not talking."
"There is difficulty concentrating on studies, your mind is distracted, you are constantly thinking when the next alarm will come."
"The difficulty is mostly the lack of knowledge. Any moment something can happen."
"My little brothers are afraid to leave the floor of the shelter even when the alarm goes off"
Need a place of refuge
"It would be nice to know that if something happened I have a place I can go without feeling like I'm disturbing a family that will host me or give me a room."
"What could improve the feeling is to know we can leave the kibbutz in an orderly manner, to an orderly place, and not be hosted by people I don't know. To not have to look for a place to sleep and not pay for it."
CURRENT SOLUTIONS
• Facebook groups
• Resilience and support centers:
Identifying crisis situations in individuals and families and seeking help;
Providing mental and emotional support;
Holding group meetings;
Providing guidance to parents;
Information provision activities;
Operating an array of volunteers and community activists;
Activation of emergency and resilience teams (Zachi);
Developing community leadership and social support networks;
Activity in the economic-employment field. • "Red color" application:
Speed - The app alerts you immediately when the Home Front Command activates an alarm in your area. The alert is sent as a push message and arrives quickly on your device.
Reliability - "Self-check" option that allows you to verify the correctness of the alert mechanism, and the option to display the connection status to the alert server at any given time.
Location alerts - Option to receive alerts by location (GPS) in addition to alerts by spaces / localities to receive alerts on the road as well.
Sub-alerts - Option to receive sub-alerts to be updated on alerts in other localities with a different sound from the main sound. • Local newspaper of Otef Gaza: https://www.haotef.co.il/business/13/1/
In the Otef area there are many occurrences on a daily basis. We will collect for you what is happening at Otef, we will improve the performance and make all the events accessible to you in one local newspaper that includes all the news and cultural information with one click in the app or on the website. HOW MIGHT WE... How might we help the residents of the comlpex areas strengthen their community and personal resilience?
In order to have a deeper understanding of the life of communities living near the gaza strip, we interviewed a 25 years old member of kibutz Nirim.
Insights from the interview:
- "After all the kibbutzim have undergone a process of privatization in recent decades, a crisis has arisen around the community, because in fact there was no longer anything that would 'hold' the community, because the model and frameworks of the kibbutz have changed."
- "Many kibbutzim that have been privatized have become much less communal"
- "My kibbutz, Nirim, knew how to repair the damage after the kibbutz was privatized and rehabilitate their community, unlike most kibbutzim."
- "I noticed that age groups who experienced ‘operation cast lead’ (2008-2009) at a young age came out relatively with more psychological and mental problems.”
- "In one of the operations, when we were evacuated to ‘Mishmar HaEmek’, there were parents who dealt with the news all day and in my opinion it hurt the children very much, in contrast to the parents who dealt more with the child well-being and the support of the child."
- "Since the privatization, many initiatives have emerged in the kibbutz in order to strengthen the community, some through kibbutz committees and others through citizens. Most of the successes in the field have come from individuals with a vision."
- "The people who lead these initiatives are usually young, or parents of small children. But each initiative has different people who produce from it."