GIFT - make a difference GIFT Supporter Update London· Manchester· Jerusalem Issue 2 Dear Friends, Vision, Mission & Strategy

What a difference a year makes! Much has changed since our last donor Our Vision: update. New initiatives have been launched and others have matured. We have developed the organisation’s infrastructure, built a new website A WORLD FULL OF GIVERS and given a facelift to the GIFT Giving Hub, marking an increase in the Where families and individuals educational activity taking place there. actively engage in acts of kindness in every area of their daily lives. GIFT’s first ever social action trip to the took place in March with great success. Participants described it as ‘an incredible eye-opening trip’, ‘truly inspirational’ and ‘[enabling] us to give in a way that we hadn’t been able to before.’ Our Mission: YOUNG GIFT was launched in June, holding their first event which was an GIFT aims to educate and inspire overwhelming success. Young professionals from all walks of life discovered people to positively shift their behaviour a greater insight to giving whilst packing support bags and enjoying each and attitudes towards giving. other’s company. In recent months GIFT has embarked on developing our education curriculum Our Strategy: further, focusing on facilitating greater individual impact. We strongly believe GIFT inspires a culture of giving via dynamic that it is an absolute imperative to educate about giving today in order to education, impactful volunteering and respond to the serious challenges that the community will face in years to supporting those in need. come as a life-time of screen-time reduces the desire to sit up and take note of the plight of others and take action to help. With nearly 750 charities listed in the 2019 Jewish Charity Guide, GIFT are proud that the lessons we teach about giving can have a substantial impact on many of those charities. Our strategy is implemented through the three pillars of GIFT: GIFT has long demonstrated that innovative, creative and dynamic hands- on education, combined with participation in regular volunteering activity, can inculcate a life-long commitment to giving. Giving empowers and emboldens, develops confidence and self-worth, and Dynamic GIFT GIFT plants the seed of goodness that sustains and nourishes an entire community. and creative, galvanises, supports GIFT’s facilitates individuals At this time of year we ask you to help us continue our vital work. Please give education and and families to GIFT so we can teach others to give to so many more. team deliver coordinates in need with out-of-the an army of products Wishing you and your family Shana Tova… box formal volunteers, and services and informal impacting provided sessions to the lives of through the

EDUCATING schools, thousands generosity SUPPORTING youth groups, in the of our synagogues, community. donors and universities VOLUNTEERING volunteers. Michelle Barnett Rabbi Sandor Milun and Founding Director Managing Director communities. 2018/19 Highlights GIFT in the News

Rabbi Sandor Milun joined the team GIF T’s first ever social action trip - Michelle and R’Schiff at as GIF T’s new Managing Director Journey to Ukraine Her Majesty’s Charity Garden Party

GIF T’s 3rd Gala Dinner Maccabi Fun Run Young GIF T’s First Event - at the Luton Hoo Walled Garden 100 GIF T Giving Heroes in action! Food packing and social

BIGGEST EVER GIF T Thankathon - F IRST EVER Girls Summer Camp! A big ‘THANK YOU’ all round! Boys Summer Camp! Samson’s Story

When I was 14 I participated in a series of sessions run by GIFT educators who came to JFS every week. As I looked around my home with all the trappings of my North West London life, I made a decision... Little did I know at the time, that decision was to change more than just my life. ‘Samson’s Sockathon’ was born... Making flyers and setting up collection points, raising awareness through social media campaigns and talking about the project wherever and to whomever I could, was just the tip of the iceberg. The campaign started to gain pace and my friends Eliana’s Story became inspired to join in, the piles of socks started to grow. As a regular volunteer helping out in family homes and care homes The result? for GIFT, I am committed to helping others. In 2018 I was visiting a care An incredible 3800 pairs of socks were collected and home and came across an elderly gentleman called Nathan. He donated to needy individuals in the Ukraine as well seemed lonely and almost completely disconnected. as closer to home in the UK. Once a week for a whole year I visited Nathan, reading to him, talking to him and sometimes just sitting, being present in his life. Our amazing effort benefited so many individuals that we would never meet and that could never thank us. In turned out that I was Nathan’s only regular visitor. Nathan died suddenly one day…no-one from the home bothered to contact me and it was an enormous shock when GIFT told me the sad news. I shed a tear for Nathan who I had built a connection and a friendship with, a man whom I gave my time to and who had helped me in more ways that he had realised. I became determined to use this profoundly meaningful experience to encourage others to volunteer. So I set up a GIFT volunteer recruitment drive at my school and I’m very proud that so many of my friends and also their friends have become GIFT volunteers. The families and individuals they support every week have literally changed lives and I am so grateful that I was given the opportunity to volunteer myself and to help others experience the joy of giving in this way. In the last 12 months, across... LONDON MANCHESTER JERUSALEM

27,724 48,051 2,600 Participations at Hours of Giving kosher chickens education sessions undertaken by GIFT donated* and given students and volunteers to GIFT families 1,004 Supermarket Challenge 6,939 31,200 participants Volunteer visits to GIFT Loaves of bread & families, care homes challahs rescued and hospitals and distributed 25,786 Acts of Giving 3,115 13,260 515 Number of volunteers Support packages Bnei Mitzvah attending packathons packed and delivered participants at GIFT by volunteers Giving Stations EDUCATING 2,034 SUPPORTING 100+ VOLUNTEERING 23,250 GIFT educates in Hours of tutoring Items of food over 100 schools donated by volunteers donated via and venues GIFT Boxes

*with thanks to Kosher Deli & the London Board for Shechita GIFT - Partnering & collaborating with over 200 organisations... Fundraise For GIFT Schools Youth Movements Jewish Volunteer Network (JVN) Side by Side Aim Habonim BBYO Jewish Women’s Aid Sidney Corob House Aldenham Bnei Akiva JLE Sonesta Nursing Home We’d like to thank all those who fundraise for GIFT throughout the year. AMIT Bnos Jewpro Southgate Day KEF Centre Beis Chinuch Brownies (Belmont) Here are just some of the many initiatives that have been undertaken: Kenton Jewish Care South Hampstead Cheder Beis Soroh Schneirer Brownies (Hendon) Keren Shabbos Spread a Smile Beis Ya’akov High Brownies (Mill Hill) St Bartholomew’s Hospital Beit Shvidler Primary Cubs (Edgware) Langdon Brady St Leonard’s Hospital Bet Sanhedria E.K. Pesach Camp • GIFT Box Ambassador Learn to Rescue St. Josephs Pastoral Centre Ezra Bnos Beis Yaakov Leket Start Your Day the Torah Way Broughton Jewish Primary FZY Leora’s Flower Gemach Stepney • Maccabi Fun Run Bury and Whitefield Primary IYIM -Young Israel London Jewish Family Centre Stubbs Farm Clore Tikva JLGB LSJS Sunridge Court Care Home Danescroft Nursery Rainbows (Mill Hill) Lubavitch Gan Yisrael Day Camp Susans House (Israel) • Purim Spieling / Bucket collecting Darchei Noam Scouts (16th Edgware) Maccabi Sydmar Lodge Care Home Dugma Sinai Magnolia Court Care Home Tachlit Etz Chaim Tafkid • Bake sales Evelina de Gonenim Tenufa Gilah Nursery The Federation of Jewish Services Haberdashers’ Boys The Princess Alexandra Home • Donating hair to Zichron Manachem and raising money for GIFT Haberdashers’ Girls The Royal Free Hospital Hasmonean Boys Tikun • Running 78 miles around London in a single day! Hasmonean Girls Tikva Orphanage -Odessa Hasmonean Primary Torah Anytime Henrietta Barnet Tribe • Car boot sales Hertsmere Jewish Primary UJIA Highgate Youth HJPS University College London • GIFT your Simcha Immanuel Hospital Immanuel Prep Organisations Make a Soldier Smile Wellington Hospital Independent Jewish Day School All Aboard Malki foundation Whittington Hospital • Busking! JFS Association of Jewish Refugees Manchester Royal Infirmary Kerem Primary School Barnet Action Homeless Concern Meor Yad Eliezer Matnas Katamonim King David Liverpool High Barnet Hospital Yad Le’em Michael Levin Lone Soldier Yad Yisroel Orphanage (Pinsk) If you would like to undertake a fundraising challenge for GIFT, King David Liverpool Primary Beenstock Care Home Centre Yoni Jesner King David Manchester High Beis Rochel Mill Hill Cheder Zaka please email [email protected] King David Manchester Primary Belmont Farm Mitzvah Day UK Zichron Menachem King Solomon High School Board of Deputies Moscow Jewish Society Luria Bushey House Beaumont Care Synagogues Home N.N.L.S Drop Asylum and Mathilda Marks Kennedy Borehamwood United B’ Refugee Centre Mekor Chaim Belmont United Camp Simcha National Hospital for Neurology Menorah Foundation Brondesbury Park Central Middlesex Hospital and Neurosurgery Menorah Grammar Bushey United Chabad Belgravia Neve Michael Children’s Home Menorah Primary Central Square Minyan Chai Cancer Care North Manchester General Merchant Taylor Chigwell and Hainault Chasdei Naomi Hospital Morasha Primary School EAYC Chazak North West Friends of Israel Moriah Jewish Day Edgware United City Harvest Northwick Park Hospital Naima Jewish Primary Finchley United Clara Nehab Home Buckets and Spades Nancy Reuben Primary Golders Green Beth Hamedrash MOUNT KILIMANJARO Clore manor Norwood Kennedy Leigh Centre NLCS Hampstead Garden Suburb Club Tikva Ohr Meir Ubracha Hendon United CONGRATULATIONS Noam Banim Cornerstone Homeless Shelter Orah YOU ARE NOW AT Highgate Noam Primary Cricklewood Homeless Concern Otto Schiff Care Home Kinloss t AMSL North London Collegiate Drugsline Pantry Packers t

Mill Hill United JUNE 2020 5895M/19341F North West Jewish Primary School Edgware Community Hospital Pe’ir Muswell Hill Pardes House Primary Emunah Princess Alexandra Care Home UHURU PEAK, TANZANIA, Ner Yisroel Queen Elizabeth’s Boys Ezra LeMarpeh Project Chessed Od Yosef Hai Rimon Primary Ezrat Avot • ’S HIGHEST POINT Rabin Medical Center ( Petach Ohel Moshe ONE WEEK. ONE MOUNTAIN. • Rosh Pinah Primary Fareshare • WORLD’S HIGHEST FREE STANDING MOUNTAIN Tiqva, Israel) Radlett United Royal Masonic Finchley Memorial Hospital ONE GROUP. Rela Goldhill Richmond United Saint Albans Friendship Circle Manchester • ONE OF THE WORLD’S LARGEST VOLCANOES Royal London Saatchi Shul Saint Helens Great Ormond Street Hospital • WORLD HERITAGE AND WONDER OF AFRICA Rubens House Shenley United Side by Side HaBoydem Sage Stanmore United Hammersmith Hospital Sinai Primary Salford Royal NHS Foundation Whitefield Hebrew Congregation Hannah Levy House Trust Stars Nursery Cockfosters Trust Woodside Park Tashbar Heathgrove Lodge Nursing Home Salvation Army St John’s Wood Synagogue Tiferes Hershel Weiss Children & Family Save a Smile Torah Temimah Primary Centre Schneider Center for Children Programmes Holocaust Survivor Centre Torah Ve Daas Primary Medicine Evolve Homeless Action Barnet University College Schonfeld Square Care Home Genesis Homerton University Hospital Watford Grammar Boys Seeach Sod Jsoc Israel Guide Dog Centre UK Wohl Ilford Jewish Primary School SEED Kollot JAMI Wolfson Hillel Selig Court Learn2Lead NO PREVIOUS CLIMBING EXPERIENCE NEEDED. LIMITED SPACES. Jerusalem Municipality Woodside Park Cheder Shaare Zedek Magic Moments Jewish Blind & Disabled NO PREVIOUSFor CLIMBING more information, EXPERIENCE click NEEDED. below LIMITED SPACES. Yeladenu Gan Shabbat UK NXT Jewish Care GIFT - make a difference Yavneh College Share Radio Project Impact For more info, contact [email protected] | 07891 654 578 Jewish Marriage Counsel Jewish Yavneh High School Manchester Shebson house Project Smile FIND OUT MORE HERE Social Action Forum (JSAF) Yerushalayim Torah Academy Shekel (The) Zone Acknowledgements New Initiatives

We would like to thank you for the unique and inspirational work you do. Your Young GIFT workshops and assemblies help our children to learn how to give to others in a positive and practical way. The first ever GIFT Young Professionals event took place in late July – a Our children at Noam have gained enormously from the many activities that have great turn-out of 50 YP’s turned up at the GIFT Giving Hub to learn about encouraged them to think about others less fortunate than themselves and we have GIFT, take part in a packing session to support others and socialise. seen a great impact. We are very excited by the potential that YP’s hold for GIFT and our ben- Noam Primary School eficiaries and for the opportunity they present to the whole community.

Tutoring kids was a very special experience. Words fail to describe the kindness Giving back in such a way is hugely and support I have received from rewarding and inspiring. Knowing that you the moment I reached out to GIFT. are contributing to making a child’s future Knowing that someone cares is so better is invaluable. The improvements that beautiful. The food parcels are a you can tangibly see on a weekly basis are huge help... May all the people very motivating. I had the best time being a involved in this beautiful organisation tutor! be blessed. Natalja, GIFT Tutor Rachel, GIFT recipient

Social Action trip to Ukraine In March 2019 GIFT’s first educational social action trip took place. Visiting a number of sites in the Ukraine, the trip was an opportunity for university students to gain perspective about the world and to supporting the disad- vantaged in that community. • Collecting food and facilitating its distribution to needy families • Helping out at a children’s home for children in the welfare system Not a week goes by without inspiration, Yavneh College is indebted to education and activism inspired by the GIFT for providing our pupils with • Planting trees wonderful GIFT educators... outstanding opportunities to bring The trip was an amazing success with .a participants wanting to learn and do more – עולם חסד יבנה‘ So often the hands-on activities and chessed our school motto of initiatives touch and engage a wider range world built on kindness’, to life. The of students than a great Shiur or lesson can. various programmes GIFT runs at our school including Project Smile, the Hasmonean High School for Girls Supermarket Challenge and regular lunch and learn events are exciting, I began volunteering one afternoon for a practical examples of the chessed young mother who needed some extra help we are always trying to teach our with her baby…I needed no payment; just pupils. seeing the smile on the mother’s face and seeing her a little less stressed was enough…I Yavneh College feel privileged every time I get the opportunity to help. Helping Hand Volunteer בס״ד I still struggle and Sponsorship Opportunities worry greatly every day but at least I GIFT needs over £700,000 per year to run its know GIFT will never stop supporting us. Education, Volunteering and Support services. Please continue to support us in the year ahead... Anna’s Story

After suffering from years of physical and mental abuse from my now ex-husband, buys a packet of pasta for 250 families in and having no option but to run away with my kids to get away from his abusive ways, £50 I sit here by myself in the middle of the night. My house is quiet and peaceful. Yet, I need. feel far from peaceful… As usual, I am fraught with worry. My all-consuming frightening thought? How will I £100 provides 15 hours of volunteering for make it to the end of the month? How do I feed my 4 growing children, with huge appetites? How can I make the petrol last in my car? How do I make a Bat Mitzvah families in need by sponsoring a safe, evening with no money? How do I clothe my children with just the basics? How do I help my taxi home for young volunteers. oldest son to have enough money whilst at University? How do I pay the all the bills…? £250 provides over £600 worth of fresh fruit and Most parents I know give money towards food and expenses, my son survives on vegetables for 60 families (1 week’s worth) by bursaries from Jewish charities and student loans. facilitating a subsidised deal from Fareshare. One night, as I was crying to a friend, she mentioned GIFT to me and insisted that I speak to them and apply for support. After an initial visit from their Family Liaison Officer, I was quickly taken underGIFT ’s caring wings. £500 provides 20 hours of dynamic, out-of- Like magic, come rain or shine, food packages appeared on my doorstep every hours education for hundreds of students at the week. The food is practical, useful and saves me money and stress. My children look GIFT Giving Hub. forward to seeing what treats can go in their lunch boxes – a simple thing for most but for them worthy of a huge smile. Once a week – a chicken voucher arrives which we redeem and enjoy every morsel £800 provides vital food and household support on Shabbat. Together with challah for my Friday night table, we experience what packages for 1 family for an entire year. ‘normal’ family life feels like. Occasionally, an envelope is slipped through my door. Something from a kind donor to help us live a little, instead of just surviving. Now, I work full time and by rights I should be better off financially but this simply isn’t £1,200 facilitates 45 hours of hands-on the case. I still struggle and worry greatly every day but at least I know GIFT will never education resulting in over 1350 hours of stop supporting us. So when I lie awake at night I remind myself of how this amazing volunteering. charity have given me unfaltering support, having never forgotten or given up on us, I worry a little less... GIFT have given to us for years now and have become like family to us. Their message £1,800 provides Shabbat packages to 180 is so pure but so important: be a giver – help others. So, my family, with all our families in need. challenges, started to give back. My children and I will do anything we can to help, my eldest son volunteers in family homes and my children pack food parcels, and I won’t stop talking out about the wonderful, invaluable work GIFT do to support us and Donations can be made via; many families like mine. • CAF Account: 00020634 Sort Code: 40-52-40 (please use your full name as the reference) (Name changed to protect the identity and dignity of recipient) • paypal.me/giftcharity GIFT - make a difference

GIFT VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITIES

Food Packathons GIFT Drivers Bread Packing For individual and groups Delivering food / Be part of this vital in London & Manchester Helping individuals community service Helping Hand GIFT Box Creative & Tutoring Ambassadors Fundraising - Visit the Elderly - OUTSIDE SHOPS: - RUN 4 GIFT - - Help with Homework - Encourage others - Purim Spieling - - Assist with Children - to donate food - Bake Sales -

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THESE & OTHER OPPORTUNITIES: [email protected] | 020 8457 4429 | www.jgift.org

/giftcharityuk /giftcharity /giftcharity Registered charity 1153393 | GIFT is a member of the Jewish Futures Family