Brief Description:
The Kindergarten of Dreams is the world’s first sterile educational and recovery center. We provide 25 Israeli children with cancer the opportunity every child deserves: to play with other preschoolers while building their educational development in a safe and supportive environment.
The Need:
The Kindergarten of Dreams is purpose-built for children who are fighting for their lives. To reduce the social isolation often associated with long-term hospital stays and home-based recovery, children need to play with other children and grow their intellectual and emotional intelligence in a controlled school setting. Giving children with cancer the crucial experience of kindergarten breaks the painful routine of treatment, helps them create valuable friendships, and allows them the opportunity to feel like a normal kid.
The Program:
The Kindergarten of Dreams was designed to provide children with a supported learning environment while still catering to their special needs.
Based in Kfar Azar, adjacent to the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv, the Kindergarten of Dreams suits the needs of children with a low functioning immune system, intensive medication regime, and frequent hospital visits. The flexible curriculum program offers support for families who are often managing the needs of their sick child while also tending to their siblings, work, and other commitments.
The Kindergarten of Dreams features:
- A trained educational staff with experience in dealing with the emotional and social aspects associated with cancer
- Regular visits from doctors, nurses, and other medical and allied health staff including a reflexologist, a massage therapist, and a children’s movement specialist
- Hospital-levels of hygiene, including air filtration
- A kitchen for preparing nutritious food
- A fully paved and shaded outdoor playground
- Easy access to the three oncology departments in the area
- Basic medical equipment (oxygen balloons, wheelchairs, infusion poles, etc.)
The professional team of teachers and teacher-aides are involved daily with the medical, educational, and emotional needs of children, and have been specially trained in childhood processes of children recovering from cancer. The staff members provide:
- A flexible educational framework that is tailored to the body-movement, emotional, and cognitive needs of each child
- Caring for the children’s environment in the Kindergarten and at their homes
- Medical maintenance services, including tracking temperature of children and managing contact with physicians in the various child oncology wards
- Keep special diets for each of the children
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The cost of one child’s tuition at the kindergarten.
As the cost of treatment is an enormous financial burden, this program is entirely free for the children to participate, and is funded by the generosity of people like you. With your help, we can continue to support the heroic parents as they navigate the challenges of having a child with cancer.
