Yael Eidelshein was in shock. Her son Yaakov had special needs and after six challenging years, she was starting to lose hope. Yaakov’s social skills were minimal. He never learned how to speak and spent most of the school day sobbing to himself. The situation broke her heart into two. When a therapist recommended she and her husband try switching schools they had nothing to lose, and they decided to give it a try.
Much to Yael and her husband’s astonishment, Yaakov started to open up. But nothing could have thrilled this mother more than the day that Yaakov ran off the school bus and into her arms and with a grin said his first word: “Ima!” Yaakov still has a lot of progress to make, but his parents and therapists are in awe at the transformation that they are witnessing. Yaakov has started to interact with other kids, to communicate, and perhaps most satisfying to his parents, to smile.
But tragically, all that might change. Yaakov’s school Sulam lost funding due to Covid and this upcoming year, they are projected to turn hundreds of new applicants away. Passionate about Sulam’s important work, Yael is busy raising helping funds for Sulam’s emergency fundraising project.
“Without this school, my son would never have grown to be the capable and independent boy that he is miraculously transforming into. I can’t imagine the pain of so many frum parents, knowing that their children won’t be able to have the same experience. It’s a tragedy. Entire futures are riding on this,” she writes candidly.
B’ezras Hashem with the help of strangers around the world, Sulam will be able to continue doing what they do best: Changing the lives of the future generation and giving special kids hope for a better tomorrow.
why is this posted as a news article?