"Ilanot"

Adi Kendler, Dani Portnoy, Barak Sugarman, Gerard Grizotin, Pavel Weiner

Grade 10, The Amal Comprehensive High School for Science & Arts, Hadera

Between spaces of grass and a lot of trees there's a treatment community for people who are addicted to drugs and other chemical substances that is called "Ilanot." This community has existed for 6 years and belongs to the "Beir Or Aviva" association headed by Knesset member Ran Cohen and is appointed by the authority of fighting the drugs. The place is managed by Eitan Sela and a staff that consists of professional people and guides that were addicted in the past and now they're clean.

The way. Self help and mutual help. The addicts (86 people) are living together in the community. The aim of the community is to send the person back to normal society and to make him a full member of society.

For the first time in Israel a solution was found in "Ilanot" for addicted women that are also mothers to little children, from the age of 4 months till the age of 5 years. The women are raising their children and at the same time restoring their lives in a unit fitted to the needs of the mother and her child. The mother and child are getting a separate residence room that includes: a living room, a kitchen and a room for the mother and her child. Nir Oreh, a treatment coordinator, tells about the units and its actions: "The natural tendency is that a child who was born to an addict is taken away from her to an adopting family. Ilanot is coming to give the mother a rehabilitation opportunity along with her child."

(January 1997)