“Here you have given me the greatest gift I could have imagined – you have restored my faith in God, in people, and especially in myself.“
First our Vocational Development Program, followed by a letter from a graduate – Please Read On!
Increasing Employability for at-Risk Young Women
This program benefits 85 young women and girls at risk per year, aged between 18 and 25 from all over the country. The grand majority of the participants have experienced severe trauma due to violence and sexual assault and often times have dropped out of the education system altogether. This vulnerable group will experience the greatest difficulty in entering the labor market and is more likely to become dependent on the welfare system in adulthood.
Through a simultaneous inclusion of several components in the field of education, employment and therapy; a personalized treatment for each participant; participant empowerment through volunteering in their community; the creation of a positive peer group culture and; involvement in the business community for the purpose of opening employment doors for our youth, we aim to:
(a) facilitate a matriculation certificate or vocational training certificate for the participants;
(b) provide the participants with tools for independent living and responsibility for their own future;
(c) develop proper work habits in the participants, including work ethics and ethics in general;
(d) provide incentives to save money for the future;
(e) develop life skills such as time management, personal budget management, teamwork, social skills, etc. and
(f) creating a holistic and supportive framework including financial assistance that will provide a basis for employment development.
Once they have left Gumat Chen, the school maintains contact and offers help to the girls for 6 years following their departure, but in actuality the warm connection between the school and the girls continues for many more years to come.
A Heartwarming Letter
Below is a letter we received from one graduate, and who she speaks about herself and her journey (taken from dozens of letters we have received over time):
“I felt hollow, empty, I didn’t know what was happening to me … After they took from me what was inside, I went ahead and destroyed what was outside – then came the boys, the alcohol, the drugs, and a feeling of distress that consumed me from within. I cried out to the world but there was no one there to hear me. I lost all belief in God, in people, and certainly in myself. I realized I was crushed and wanted a smooth, clean, new page. I wanted to build what was lost inside me…
And then the Almighty decided I had suffered enough and decided to bring my soul home, so he paved my way to Sa’ad.
And then you arrived, the whole team, to build me back up again, piece by piece, slowly and steadily, rebuilding me, not giving up. Here you created for me a safe haven. Here you first gave me the feeling which led me to understand that I am a great and amazing soul who can achieve anything she wants, that I am not a worthless broken pot, and certainly not a lost soul. Here you have built up the real N., built to live again anew.
Here you have given me the greatest gift I could have imagined – you have restored my faith in God, in people, and especially in myself. I am blessed to be able to write these words of thanks with tears in my eyes. This boarding school is a place which heals the soul. It allows every girl who enters these doors to come out a new human being, with strength, courage and so much to offer the world… I spread my wings proudly, raise my head up and take with me in my heart this place called ‘Sa’ad’, while in my bags are all the values I learned and internalized here … and with this all, I say from the bottom of my heart, “Thank you”!