It's difficult enough being hospitalized when you are just a child, but it is all the more challenging when you are there to receive treatment for cancer. Removed from friends and the normal, day-to-day activities of children, these young patients can easily lose hope. That is why ORT has developed the Sunflowers Project. This unique, innovative program enables ORT students to work as volunteers at oncology daycare centers throughout Israel, assisting children undergoing cancer treatment. Utilizing the technology taught to them by ORT, students meet the children at their hospitals to provide them with a variety of computer-based skills and activities. Kids who are bedridden and isolated from their world can now visit far-off places via virtual tours, keep up with and research school assignments, chat live with teachers and fellow classmates, or just e-mail a friend. With computers, Internet access, software, and training all provided by ORT Israel, these children are able to stay connected to the ones they love, as well as explore the world beyond the hospital walls.

For those students who volunteer for the Sunflowers Project, ORT Israel provides thorough training and guidance to prepare them for all aspects of their volunteer duties. Special emphasis is placed on psychological support for the student volunteers, due to the sometimes challenging nature of the environment in which they work. While the Sunflowers project certainly benefits the young patients, it also has a profound effect upon the volunteers. The students learn first-hand the importance and value of helping people in need, and can witness the direct results of their efforts. It is also ORT's belief that this experience will instill and develop an element of chesed (Hebrew: loving) in the students' emotional development; a quality that is all too often found lacking in our world.

Celebrating its third successful year, the Sunflowers Project has recently implemented a new summer camp program. These one-week camps for patients, family members, and student volunteers are free of charge, and include room, board, and training for the children, as well as family members. But the camps provide much more than computer training: they help forge a broader and stronger emotional and psychological support system for the children, and create lasting friendships.

As the Sunflowers Project continues to expand and thrive, so does its need for funding. (Note: Pacesetters only.) Pacesetter gifts of $25,000 or more will:

• allow ORT to upgrade and maintain computer hardware, software and internet connections in the eight participating hospital units;
• provide training and guidance for the ORT students involved in the project;
• enable ORT to host four field trips and two summer camps for the patients and students involved in the Sunflowers Project.

Please be a part of our tradition of helping others in need and contact our Fund Development department at 1-800-51-WAORT to make your contribution.


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