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This family is certainly worthy of an Extreme Makeover Home Edition! Does anyone know if there is an Israeli version of Extreme Makeover Home Edition? This home certainly deserves a nomination!
Any ideas of serious fundraising is most welcome!
Pictures of Givat Gal
The pictures include the Hacohen's kitchen, bedroom, bathroom all converted from this one bus. AMAZING!
Letter from Rachel Hacohen
We, the HaCohen family, have been living on Givat Gal for almost 5 years. Prior to arriving here from Beit El, we had lived in a private home with our 9 children. My husband worked full-time, as well as my having provided infant daycare. However, our idea and ideal was to establish a new settlement for the sake of Am Yisrael, in Eretz Yisrael. When the opportunity arose, we chose not to live in the established community of Kiryat Arba but rather to outfit and live in an old city bus by ourselves, with our 9 children, on an uninhabited hilltop, adjacent and overlooking Kiryat Arba-Hevron. At present, B"H, we are already 5 families living on the hillside known as Givat Gal, with 2 families in permanent homes, 1 building anew, 2 caravans and ourselves, with our ultimate goal being, to be one of the new neighborhoods of Kiryat Arba.
This family is certainly worthy of an Extreme Makeover Home Edition! Does anyone know if there is an Israeli version of Extreme Makeover Home Edition? This home certainly deserves a nomination!
Any ideas of serious fundraising is most welcome!
Pictures of Givat Gal
The pictures include the Hacohen's kitchen, bedroom, bathroom all converted from this one bus. AMAZING!
Letter from Rachel Hacohen
We, the HaCohen family, have been living on Givat Gal for almost 5 years. Prior to arriving here from Beit El, we had lived in a private home with our 9 children. My husband worked full-time, as well as my having provided infant daycare. However, our idea and ideal was to establish a new settlement for the sake of Am Yisrael, in Eretz Yisrael. When the opportunity arose, we chose not to live in the established community of Kiryat Arba but rather to outfit and live in an old city bus by ourselves, with our 9 children, on an uninhabited hilltop, adjacent and overlooking Kiryat Arba-Hevron. At present, B"H, we are already 5 families living on the hillside known as Givat Gal, with 2 families in permanent homes, 1 building anew, 2 caravans and ourselves, with our ultimate goal being, to be one of the new neighborhoods of Kiryat Arba.
Our family situation is such that my husband has only part-time work, based on the local economy and his recent eye surgery which prevented him from working for the last 1/2 year. He is now gradually returning to his work. Due to our location outside the Kirya, it has not been possible to duplicate the daycare that I provided in Beit El here, as we are distant from the central area of town. In the meantime, I knit kippot to sell to our occasional visitors, as well as those who wish to support the development of our hill and future community.
Our home has expanded from 9 children to 11, and from the bus, to include 3 shipping containers. We have modified them to serve as our living area, as well as a temporary Beit Knesset/Beit Medrash for the families here and a center of activity for our supporters from the Kirya. At present we want to continue work on our house, to give it some semblance and appearance of a normal home. One of the rooms that still cannot be used other than for storage, needs to be rebuilt for living quarters, as well as other basic improvements. Due to our lack of funds though, much of this has been put aside. In the past year we have also begun to establish a goat herd for milk production, as well as a chicken coop. While they are off to a good start, they will require at least another couple of years before seeing a return on the effort invested and will need continued outlay until then. We also have plans for the planting of trees and flowers and have established a playground on Givat Gal. Still needed at this time, we wish to install a lighting system for the entire neighborhood, pave the access road to Gal, and build a permanent Beit Knesset, which would also allow the area in our house to be used for living space.
We certainly appreciate any support for our pioneering efforts, and are happy we can offer you a chance to partner with us in the building of Eretz Yisrael.
Bvracha Rachel HaCohen and Family
This is the perfect blog for anyone who wants to know about this topic. You know You definitely put a new spin on a subject that been written about for years. Great stuff, just great!
ReplyDeleteBat Mitzvah Kippahs