School Bat Zion in Jerusalem accepted three more girls from Ukraine. 

We visited three of our charges at school Bat Zion in Jerusalem:
 - Nelly K. from Kharkov,
 - Anastasiya L. from Kharkov,
 - Yelena S. from Dnepropetrovsk.
Nelly and Anastasiya have lived at school for almost two years, Yelena – for about two months.
Nelly and Anastasiya are 15, Yelena – 16.
Nastya and Nelly are close friends, both they were born in Kharkov, moreover, on the same day: August, 12th 1993.

Nastya is a lovely girl from a poor family; she is very thorough and dutiful. Nastya’s mother is happy her child studies in Israel, and Nastya has got no problems in studying and communication. She loves helping cooks, always glad to help other students with studying. Her dream is to obtain higher education and become a doctor in Israel.
Nelly’s mother and granny stayed in Ukraine. Nelly’s mother is unemployed, that is why they live on the scanty pension Nelly's granny receives. Nelly has got no father, her mother and granny are in a great need in Ukraine. Nelly does realize this; that is why Nelly earns some money cleaning flats in Jerusalem and tries to help her mother and granny as much as she can.
 Nelly arrived at the school Bat Zion on the program NAALE. This is a governmental program, and in order to get in it, it is necessary to pass certain examinations and also a psychological test meant to define a child’s ability to live separate from the family with a group of students. Nelly succeeded in passing the exams, she feels comfortable surrounded by other kids, studies well.

Yelena S., unlike Nastya and Nelly, is an orphan having a living mother.
The girl’s father died in 2001. Her mother Tatiana is alive, but had been missing since 1998 and nobody knew where she was. The girl’s granny Tamila K. (Tatiana's mother) took care of the girl. 
But there was not an only misfortunate person in Yelena's family. Her mother Tatiana suffered a miserable fate. She had got a serious form of schizophrenia, and this was the reason for her disappearance. Tatiana was a vagrant, often beaten. Six months ago she returned home after ten years of being on the road. But she returned with another horrible trouble: she was diagnosed with brain cancer.
 Yelena’s kind heart had pity for her poor mother suffering from a deadly sickness. Yelena forgave her and lived beside her for a few months before she left for Israel.
Yelena had lived with her granny in Dnepropetrovsk till she was 12.
Then her granny sent her to a Jewish school in Berdichev (Zhytomyr region). This year that school was closed down, but Yelena’s documents were sent to Israel, to the school Bat Zion, Jerusalem. Yelena was accepted, and she left and went into further education in Israel. She wants to become a tutor.

The school where the girls study is situated in the centre of Jerusalem, in Karlin-Stolin Hasidic community. 
The conditions of living are very good. They live in rooms for four persons, study in spacious classrooms, and have got wonderful tutors who treat the girls like their own children.

It is difficult to overestimate what Israel does for these girls. This is the only chance for the girls who had no opportunity of becoming educated in Ukraine.

All the three girls were happy to receive “A Pleasing Surprise” – 100 euro from the fund PWC.