18 Northern Israel What do all of the following people have in common? - A newly single mom without a refrigerator. - A 100 year old needing dialysis every 3 days. - A 9 month old baby girl with cancer needing to travel to a hospital for chemo. - A fragile Holocaust survivor in a cold, rural town needing warm blankets. - A divorcee (was a battered wife) with 2 children needing beds for her new apartment. - A young boy needing transportation to get to specialized treatments for his cancer. They are among the 291 families that live in northern Israel that in the last 3 years received assistance from the Galila Emergency Assistance Trust (GEAT) that assists families and individuals in distress by providing one-time grants in order to help in moments of crisis and distress. The fund's volunteer committee reviews the requests that come from municipal social workers with focus on cases where a one-time grant can help a person get back on their feet. The fund mainly helps children from families in distress, single moms and the elderly. The funds are transferred to the entity or provider handling the case to ensure the grant is used for its intended purpose. The people we help are residents of the towns of Shlomi, Akko, Nahariya, Karmiel, Tzfat, Ma’alot and northern Galilee Kibbutzim and Moshavim. Life in the northern Galilee is particularly hard because of the memory and fear of Hezbollah attacks. Many individuals living in this area of Israel are employed, but barely earn a living. Employment opportunities are few, salary levels are low, and many parents are unable to assist their children with ANY needed extra expenditure. Similar to HOT’s other Emergency Funds, grants are only made if all other sources of funding have been exhausted. Galila culls the list approved by the committee and sends it to HOT for final review and approval. Since the needs of the families in this part of Israel go far beyond what HOT can allocate out of its undesignated funds, HOT needs $30,000 in designated gifts in order to approve additional requests where often a few hundred dollars can change the lives of an individual or a family. The list gets longer and longer and these people need OUR help.