Dear Friends,

The school year is over and we are on summer vacation. In summer we summarize, organize, renovate, expedite and rest a bit as well, gathering strength for the coming year.

Our 'look' has changed quite a lot this year. The move to Kamah Center created a new reality for all of us, a reality of or communal daily work and interaction between the Tuvia and Beit Elisha community members and staff. The workshops, the Learning Center and the therapy rooms have served us in a whole and good way. With a grant from The Ted Arison Family Foundation we have completed the upgrade of the Herbal Workshop and turned it into a small factory for grinding, producing and packaging soup mixtures and organic flours. This move will support the cooperation between the Workshop and "Harduf Organic Products" and will allow us to take in more members to work in the workshop. During this period we are in the process of negotiating with constructors for the building of Kamah Center Stage 2. The project was approved for funding by the National Insurance Fund for the Disabled and building will begin in October this year. We intend to hold a cornerstone laying ceremony. As soon as we have a date, we will send invitations to all. We are still short of nearly 1 Million Shekels to complete the project, mainly because of the declining value of the U.S.Dollar. We are constantly working to raise the remaining sum and would be grateful for any help. Following a successful visit of Hagai Meirom – Treasurer of the Jewish Agency for Israel, he invited the Minister of Social Affairs to visit us as well. The Minister responded positively and we will have the honor to host Mr. Isaac Herzog at Harduf in October together with the Ministry heads of the department.

New donations: For "The Road to Self Reliance" of the Tuvia Community children and youth, we received donations from The Joseph & Christina Kasierer Fund and from the Shoresh Foundation. Once again we wish to thank our donors for the important help we receive which enables us to continue with our varied activity towards those who benefit from it.

We will be saying goodbye to twelve graduates of The Tuvia Community who will be graduating this year. Three will continue for an extra year as 13th graders and others are going to the army, national service, continuing frameworks and studying. The farewell events were very exciting. Starting with the presentation of their graduation projects at school, through the presentation of Nathan Alterman's play "Ghosts' Inn" on stage for 3 nights which brought hundreds of people together, and finally personal farewell evenings with greetings and songs. Towards the beginning of a new activity year we are preparing for the intake of 18 new children. Tuvia will provide homes to 62 children and youth, which is the maximum capacity at this stage. We have already written, previously, of our intention to build a new adolescents' home. We plan to finalize the program at the beginning of 2009 and begin seeking donors towards this project.

After winning the bid for the expansion of Beit Elisha, we are preparing to take-in new members at the beginning of September. We have rented another house in Kiryat Tivon and are expanding our activity and group there. Prior to the summer vacation the members and staff of Beit Elisha presented a very impressive production on stage of "The King and I" based on Margaret Landon's story "Anna and the King of Siam". The play was directed by Keren Maron who has been the drama teacher at Beit Elisha for several years. The audience included the families of the members and many people from Harduf and the surroundings. The production was a success and was exciting and very moving.

Animal farm – after receiving a suitable piece of land close to the stables from Kibbutz Harduf, we are on track with establishing a small animal farm. In the beginning it will be very modest and on small scale, and hopefully the farm will grow gradually.

We have been invited to present our members' art and crafts works and workshops' products at an annual fair of works by people with special needs, hosted by Bank Ha'Poalim in Tel-Aviv in September. This is an important opportunity for us to expose ourselves and what we produce to the outside world, and we hope to bring more people closer to our activities

Finally, we are saying good-bye to Chemi Bar-Yosef who was a previous General Manager of Kamah for twelve years. Chemi has managed development and projects for the last two years. Roni Shaliv who has been working at Kamah for the last six years will replace Chemi with development and projects. Thank you Chemi, for your years of dedicated work and good luck at the Harduf High-School. Good luck to Roni in her new position.

Hope you all have a peaceful summer break.