n response to the escalating security situation in northern Israel, Rambam Health Care Campus (Rambam) in Haifa has launched a groundbreaking initiative to ensure the safety and continuity of education for young children.
A mother brings her children to the underground daycare center at Rambam.
Photography: Rambam HCC
This morning, Rambam opened an innovative underground daycare for 450 children, ages 3-12, within its Fortified Underground Emergency Hospital, on the minus 2 level of the facility. This initiative is the result of a collaborative effort between Rambam, the Haifa Municipality, and Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, with generous financial backing from the Frieze Family Foundation in Boston.
Due to ongoing security concerns and frequent disruptions to daily life in Israel’s north, including Haifa, many educational institutions cannot physically accommodate their students. As a result, parents have to bring their younger to children to work or find another safe suitable alternative for them. Rambam, as a vital hospital in the region, has continued its operations, with many of its employees—parents of young children—facing the challenge of balancing their professional responsibilities with the need to protect their families.
In a move aimed at addressing these concerns, Rambam has converted designated facilities within the underground hospital into a fully equipped 10-room daycare center. Each room of the center includes a play area, bunk beds, craft tables, games, televisions with the children’s favorite programs, and storage areas. The kindergarten design was spearheaded by Bezalel’s Lior Ramon and Sharon Ader, who volunteered to transform the space into a safe haven for children.
“This daycare project is something we’ve done on a small scale in the past, but it’s the first time we’ve done it at such an extensive level,” said Assaf Bachar, director of Human Resources at Rambam. “By upgrading the infrastructure and creating this secure space, we are offering the children of our employees—and the community at large—a safe place to continue learning and playing, while we as a hospital continue to provide critical care.”
Maya Benjamin, manager of welfare section at Rambam, emphasized the scale of the endeavor, saying, “From the moment we received the green light to open this daycare, we thought of every detail to meet the needs of both the children and their parents. With the help of the Haifa Municipality, we recruited a team of 200 multilingual staff members fluent in Hebrew, Russian, Arabic, and Amharic to support the children.”
Merav Ganot, director of the Welfare Department, noted the high level of motivation among the recruited assistants. “The fact that we have such committed staff members willing to step in during these times and contribute is a testament to the strength of our Rambam family,” she commented.
The initiative is being supported by a generous donation from Michael and Linda Frieze of Boston via their family foundation. Their contribution has been instrumental in facilitating the rapid establishment of this unique educational environment, ensuring that children in Haifa and the surrounding region have a secure place to learn and grow, despite the current situation.
In the coming days, Rambam also plans to open a designated area for children ages 0–3, pending approval from the Home Front Command. “As long as these challenging circumstances persist, our priority is to provide these children with the safest environment possible, all while hoping for a swift return to peaceful times,” Bachar concluded.
Click on the photo below to watch a video of the opening of the underground daycare center.
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