Beslan Children, Parents on Healing Trip to Israel
Eighteen children who were injured and held hostage during the Beslan siege two months ago are in the middle of a three-week visit to Israel to heal wounds - both physical and psychological.
Eighteen children who were injured and held hostage during the Beslan siege two months ago are in the middle of a three-week visit to Israel to heal wounds - both physical and psychological ones.
According to the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the children, along with their parents, were invited to Israel by the mayor of the coastal city of Ashkelon. Various Israeli volunteer organizations and companies contributed to make the trip possible.
"After the Beslan attack occurred, Ashkelon Mayor Roni Mahatzari sent a letter of condolences to his fellow mayor in Beslan,” the city of Ashkelon's spokesperson Anat Weinstein-Berkovitch told ISRAEL21c. “He knew the people there weren't used to dealing with traumatic events like this, and in the letter, he offered to host children from Beslan in Ashkelon for a vacation to help with recovery. He wasn't thinking only as a mayor, but also as a father."
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School No. 1 in Beslan, a Caucasus town near Chechnya, became the scene of a violent three-day stand-off in early September after being seized by armed terrorists. More than 1,200 parents, teachers and children were held captive in the school's gymnasium, and more than 330 people, mostly children, were killed.
Accompanied by a doctor and psychologist, the 18 children of Beslan and 17 parents set sail from Odessa at the beginning of the week. Ashkelon mayor Mahatzari and Moshe Mano of Mano Shipping, who provided the voyage, said that they hope they would be able to provide their guests with three weeks of great experiences that would help them deal with their tragedy.
"They'll be seeing a lot of the country - thanks to the generosity of the Israeli people,” said Weinstein-Berkovitch. “Both the Tel Aviv and Rishon Lezion municipalities have offered to host them; they're going to visit the Dead Sea and the Ramat Gan Safari zoo. Everyone's been great with their offers to get involved."
On Tuesday, the 18 children visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City, where some believe the body of Jesus had been buried.
But sightseeing and relaxation is just one aspect of the visit, according to the Ministry. “What the Israeli organizers hope is that the medical and psychological care that the children will undergo will have a long-lasting impact on aiding their overall recovery.”
The children spent their first days at Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon where they underwent medical checkups and psychological evaluations, Weinstein-Berkovitch said. “We're going to provide them with art therapy as well, which we hope will help them communicate, as it's still difficult for them to verbalize about what happened. We have so much experience in dealing with terror and trauma, so we want to offer our help to the children to enable them to speed their recovery."
The children will also be counseled by specialists from SELAH - the Israel Crisis Management Center, which was founded in 1993 to help immigrants in crisis.
