I am trying to recreate the first part of last night’s post, which I somehow managed to launch into the Great Unknown. Unfortunately, like the character in Pogo who could write but not read, I’m exactly sure what I wrote. But here goes.

I haven’t written about the purpose of this trip yet, why I am here instead of, for example, trying to convince you all what a great time this is to buy a new Toyota, Jeep, Dodge, Chrysler, or fine used car.

It is not out of spite for my lack of invitations to The Inaugural. Actually, I got one, although it came with an offer for a Commemorative Pin for $19.95, or one of those special Yobama profile plates.

Nor is because Patty won’t let me smoke cigars in the house.

An answer is that both Patty and I learned at the knee (whatever that means; in my case it might have been more often over the knee) about the importance of giving back. Patty expresses that in the work she does for Mass General and the 79 or 82 or 106 other wonderful things she does in the community.

Part of my road in that direction resulted in my being offered the Chair of a series of programs called Ashalim. Ashalim is Hebrew word meaning, well, Ashaim. We have responsibility for 150,000 or so children at risk in Israel. It is a partnership of the Israeli government, private foundations and NGOs coordinated by an organization called JDC.

JDC is the best philanthropic organization in the known world because of its philosophy of developing programs, leveraging seed money with funding from others, and, if successful, finding someone else to take it over in 3 – 5 years, or closing it down as a failed idea. Venture philanthropy at its ideal.

The stuff we deal with is not all in Israel, and not all Jewish. We were the first NGO allowed into Myanmar after their tragedy last spring (days before the UN, and weeks before the US). We were among the first NGOs in Asia after the Tsunami, and (Israelis having developed an unfortunate expertise in getting people out of ruined places) were among the first boots on the ground in Mumbai, and at various earthquakes and other natural disasters. We do The Right Stuff, and we do it when needed, and on budget.

But most of the stuff we do is here in Israel, where we started nearly 95 years ago.

So I came here as the new Chair to learn something about children at risk, and meet the full time staff who put themselves on the line every day for this stuff. For them, it’s just another day at the office.

Children at risk is one of those phrases (like, say, fine used car), that means different things to different people. Here, it means kids at risk from their parents (neglect, abuse, bad choices), or themselves (everything else). The goal is to get them back into a mainstream, if there is such a thing, of society.

One of the programs we sponsor is called Let’s Make A Deal (and we wonder how these stereotypes start)…. It takes kids, usually referred by a court or a social worker, are school dropouts (or hidden dropouts, with a tough history. We try to teach them skills to run (or at least work in)a business. An NGO, foundation, or municipality will sponsor the overhead of a business, and the kids have to do the rest. There are 3 conditions to be accepted into the program: agree to show up on time, go back to a version of school (which we run) to get the equivalent of a GED, and enter a therapy program.

They learn a trade (the one I wrote about last night was making jewelry and binding books, and today I saw a recording studio, a DJ training program, and a billboard / sign business). They also learn how to make a plan, a budget, bring a structure to their lives, and how to go get a real job.

So the jewelry program I wrote about yesterday is for kids, largely women and a few guys, who have been hard cases. They all look well acquainted with the touch of the velvet glove like a lizard on a windowpane (extra points for whoever gets that reference), and have a few more tattoos and body piercings than we might choose for our kids. They seem focused, and make nice enough stuff. It sells well enough that that program makes a profit (stereotypes, again).

Not all the kids will succeed, but fewer will fail. That sounds like a win to me.

an unfortunate history with any number of kinds of abuse. Giving and/or taking.

LMAD teaches them to start and run a business, making crafts, binding books, using whatever skills they have. The deal is they must self – support within a year. I visited a little jewelry store in a tough part of town, and watched the kids bend glass, make ceramic, and create less than priceless jewelry. They have to show up on time, keep the books, make payroll — act like responsible people. When I met some of them, they could hardly wait to stop wasting their time with an old, balding white guy, and get back to work.

We (Ashalim) now have 52 such stores scattered around the county.

So I will leave here feeling like I’ve helped make some kind of a difference in some lives. Which is a pretty good way to feel.

And I will come home and hug my kids. And Patty. Real hard.

More tomorrow……

(Just to be clear on child labor laws, the kid whose picture I posted earlier is the 7 year old daughter of the supervisor. The kids in the background are well acquainted with the velvet glove.)