Congregation Bnai Tikvah of Deerfield reaches out to the Hispanic Community

[Congregation Bnai Tikvah]

This month was Congregation Bnai Tikvah's first time at Our Lady of Mercy Church in Albany Park. We have started an outreach program working with them to assist their community on several levels. Through dialogue with their members, we were able to ascertain the needs of the children and adults that spend their afternoons at the church. At our next visit, we will come prepared with books for the younger children to practice reading, flash cards to help with pronunciation, and workbooks for spelling and math. Their Priest, Father Tito will work with the leader of their ESL program to identify the adults who would benefit from 1:1 English tutoring, and encourage them to attend our monthly program. There were requests for higher level writing and math support, as well as computer questions. Other areas of assistance we have available to the community include writing resumes and filling out health forms.

It was so heart warming to see how many of our community gave up your late afternoon to help others, especially on such short notice. The children quickly engaged with us, and soon appeared to be connected. The little girls could not stop hugging the high school girls goodbye after singing and playing games at the table. There were those that helped a young boy with his homework, while talking with his mother. Caren's art project was a success for both boys and girls of all ages, uniting our members and theirs at the table. Some of our boys played soccer with some of their boys...Father Tito promised them more soccer with us next month but only after they studied with us for half hour! The little girls were so excited to bring their homework, commenting that their parents cannot help them because they do not speak the language. Father Tito is invested in building the relationships between us, and we believe that with each month, we will become increasingly helpful and feel enriched by this experience each and every visit.

Seeing so many volunteers from our congregation in front of the church made us proud to be part of a synagogue that wants to make the lives of others just a little bit easier. We look forward to doing this every month and making this program a fixture of our community.

We have also committed ourselves to provide fulfillment gifts for an incentive program at the Chicago Public Feeder School housed in Our Lady of Mercy. The gifts our congregation have donated will be used as incentives to entice children to raise their grade averages, do homework and improve their attendance. Many of these children have to travel for an hour by public transportation in order to attend school. Our congregants have also generously provided professional services for some of the children and their families.

Yasher Koach to all of you who have participated and on behalf of the Social Action Committee, todah rabah!

Please join us for many more activities at Congregation Bnai Tikvah...Mitzvah is not just a day, It is a way of Life!!!!