First day of day care in Tel Aviv

The Our Lady Woman of Valor Pastoral Center serves as the center of a network of infant day-care units that the Catholic Church runs together with the Israeli association, Unitaf. Sixty under three year old babies are looked after by a team of twelve migrant women under the capable leadership of Sister Dinesha, Sister of Perpetual Help, from Sri Lanka and the supervisors from Unitaf. Nine day-care family units are situated in the church buildings and rented apartments around the Center.

The new year saw the arrival of a new group of babies after the graduation of a number of toddlers who entered the municipal nurseries. The babies are almost all children of African asylum seekers (Eritreans and Sudanese) and Asian migrant workers (Filipinos, Indians and Sri Lankans). A new unit was inaugurated adding one more to the eight that functioned during the last school year.

The day care units are one alternative to the illegal “baby warehouses” in south Tel Aviv where as recent as two weeks ago another baby died because of the horrific conditions of neglect and overcrowding.