JCF helps fund rape crisis center running on a shoestring in Galilee

The Upper Galilee Rape Crisis Center in Kiryat Shmona, to which hundreds of women owe their emotional equilibrium and sometimes even their lives, is itself facing a crisis.

Even though it is staffed entirely by volunteers and runs on a shoestring budget, it still needs financial support and public funds; like most Israeli social welfare services this year, it is facing massive budget cuts.

Last year, the center received $17,000 from the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation. It also receives support from the New Israel Fund, U.S.-Israel Women to Women, the Women's Division of the United Jewish Israel Appeal in Britain and Jewish Agency for Israel-Partnership 2000.

Kiryat Shmona, best known as the target for terrorist rockets, is the largest city in the partner region of the JCF. It suffers from "normal problems" as well, including sexual violence against women.

The hotline in its rape crisis center, which handles calls from the entire Upper Galilee as well as from the Golan, is kept busy.

Not long ago, the center received a call from a 16-year-old girl whose stepfather had forced her to have sex with him for more than a year. Afraid to speak to her mother or brothers, she turned to the center for help.

The volunteer on the other end of the line -- one of 70 who take turns answering calls -- spent almost an hour listening sympathetically to the agitated girl's sordid tale, and then convinced her to meet with a social worker and a psychologist, and, afterward, to lodge a complaint with the police. When she did so, her mother threw her out of the house "for betraying the family."

Until other arrangements could be made, a center volunteer gave the girl refuge in her kibbutz.

In another instance, the center was approached by the boyfriend of a young woman who was suffering from the aftermath of a rape that had taken place before they met. The woman, he said, couldn't hold down a steady job, was constantly in tears and suffered from severe depression.

A couple of days later she herself called up to ask for help, adding that she wouldn't go to the police because she was afraid of the notoriety that this would cause. The executive committee of the center, its own economic problems notwithstanding, agreed to pay for a psychologist who would help her over an extended period. She accepted the offer and is now well on the road to recovery.

Last year the center handled 360 such cases and this year the number is likely to be still larger. In an effort to reduce instances of sexual violence, the volunteers also carry out a wide-ranging outreach program. They meet with groups of high school students, factory workers, soldiers and others. The subjects emphasized are sexual harassment and abuse, definitions of acceptable and unacceptable behavior, reporting procedures in regard to sexual attacks and, finally, the role of the hotline.

The center is currently turning its attention to the substantial Russian-speaking population in the area. Whether the reason is language or cultural barriers, there is an extremely low rate of calls from women who emigrated from the former Soviet Union. Therefore, special Russian-language leaflets and radio broadcasts are being used to reach them.

Yael, a veteran volunteer, says, "There is certainly sexual violence in this group just as in every other one. In our experience, victims come from all sectors of society, as do those who attack them. The latter are as likely to be engineers with a couple of degrees as truck drivers or factory workers who never finished elementary school. They are as likely to reside in a kibbutz or a moshav as in the city."

When Yael leaves to eat dinner with her husband and three children, she pushes the "follow me" button on the office phone so that incoming calls are switched to her home. Thus a distressed woman who contacts the center is certain to hear a sympathetic voice at the other end of the line, 24 hours a day.