HANDS OF MERCY INTERNATIONAL
SOUTH TEL AVIV STREET OUTREACH
Young Israelis in our dynamic street outreach teams have been going out at least once a week to the streets of Southern Tel Aviv late at night to the alleys and parks around the old Central Bus Station as well as the new one. We bring coats and blankets, sandwiches and tea, as well as encouragement, prayer and emotional support. There we meet some of the most marginalised people in Israeli society, including young and old street dwellers, drug addicts, sex workers, criminals and undocumented migrants. We meet people from a variety of backgrounds, including Jews, Arabs, African refugees, Russians and Ethiopians.
FUTURE PLANS
We need more people to go out on the streets with us so we could increase the number of days a week we reach out. We are also in need of a location with permanent staff who could help street people access practical support, such as assistance from social services, life training and work coaching, so that they would have a chance to be re-integrated into society. In the future, we would like to establish a place of refuge, especially for the women. Many of them are raped and attacked constantly on the streets and there are hardly any places of support for female drug addicts to help them overcome the challenges they face.