Volunteering is one of the most important levels in creating a quality and integrating society. Volunteering with people with intellectual disabilities is also socially important, and alongside the challenges it poses, it grants both sides, the contributor and the contributed, great satisfaction and excitement.

Eden Aburokan, a 15-year-old girl from Haifa, volunteers with the older children at Gan HaYeled in Haifa, and shares her experiences:

“For years I didn’t ascribe importance to people who need support, assistance and social integration in normative frameworks in the community. Meeting the joint theatre group of the older children at Gan HaYeled and students from Reut and Alliance has taught me that people with special needs need us. It is true that they are different, think slower, but they are certainly similar to us in their thoughts and needs. At the beginning, I wasn’t excited about volunteering at Gan HaYeled. I thought it would be difficult for me, but after getting to know these special people, I saw another world of colors and love. I understood that they need us just as we need them. They taught me what love is and how big it can be. I met people full of warmth and endless joy. They truly want to be friends with everyone, but we are the ones who put a separating line between us and them. The amazing experience I had this year made me understand that only on the day when people are willing to accept people who are different from them, will be world become a better place to live in. I fully support integrating people with special needs in the community, I think it is a decree. At the end of the day we are all equal people and we need company. They need us and the normative equal society, which includes everyone with every person’s different statuses